White House names EPA, Energy and USGS nominees

By Michael Doyle | 03/08/2022 01:55 PM EST

Joseph Goffman, David Applegate and Evelyn Wang have all been tapped for key spots at the agencies.

Evelyn Wang, Joseph Goffman, David Applegate

Evelyn Wang, Joseph Goffman and David Applegate. MIT (Wang); Harvard Law School (Goffman); USGS (Applegate)

The White House today named key nominees for EPA, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Energy Department.

Joseph Goffman has been tapped for assistant administrator of the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. Goffman has served as the principal deputy assistant administrator in that office since January 2021.

David Applegate, who has been temporarily leading USGS during the first year of the Biden administration, is up for the permanent job. A USGS veteran, he is currently the associate director for natural hazards.

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Evelyn Wang, the head of the mechanical engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is nominated to be the director of the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy.

Wang previously served as associate director of the Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center, an Energy Department research center.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland touted Applegate’s background at USGS after the White House announced the nomination.

“For nearly two decades, David has helped advance the federal government’s scientific understanding of climate change and America’s geological features,” she said.

Goffman, who previously was the executive director the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School, was EPA’s top lawyer on climate and air issues throughout the Obama administration. As associate air chief and senior counsel of the air office, he had a leading role in implementing President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, including its flagship Clean Power Plan to decarbonize the power fleet.