Joseph Goffman, a senior Biden-Harris administration official who crafted some of the EPA's most high-profile climate initiatives targeting the manufacturing and automobile sectors, repeatedly violated financial conflict-of-interest rules, his agency's top watchdog said in a scathing report published this week.
Goffman was found to have owned tens of thousands of dollars in companies directly associated with multiple regulations that he, as head of the agency's Office of Air and Radiation, helped write, the EPA's Office of Inspector General said in its report. He also withheld that information, failing to meet federal ethical obligations.
The inspector general ultimately referred the results of its probe into Goffman to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia earlier this summer. The watchdog, though, gave its findings to the office's civil division, opting against making a criminal referral. Goffman remains an assistant administrator at the EPA.
Federal prosecutors accepted the findings but declined to investigate any further.
Such a referral is a rare step for an inspector general to take, even after finding wrongdoing, underscoring the seriousness of the violations. The decision not to pursue the matter further, however, suggests investigators were happy to give Goffman a slap on the wrist for his ethical lapses.
"The Inspector General's report reveals that, even after Joe Goffman committed an admitted violation of his recusal statement and was granted a free pass by ethics officials, he appeared to play fast and loose with his ethical obligations," said Michael Chamberlain, the director of Protect the Public's Trust, an organization that has filed multiple ethics complaints against Goffman. "Inspectors General do not frivolously refer matters to the U.S. Attorneys Office or broader DOJ."
"They do so only when they believe there is a genuine concern that misconduct occurred," Chamberlain continued. "Mr. Goffman's tenure as the administration's climate agenda lead perfectly illustrates the Biden-Harris administration's abusive relationship with the public's trust whenever it conflicts with their policy, or in this case personal, agenda."
The EPA inspector general opened its investigation into Goffman in February 2023, while he was the EPA Office of Air and Radiation's principal deputy assistant administrator, a position he served in from January 2021 until the Senate voted to confirm him for assistant administrator in January. Even before his confirmation, Goffman was the highest-ranking official in the office, which has 1,700 full-time staff and a budget of nearly $1 billion.
Although the investigation was initiated to probe whether some of Goffman's financial holdings presented a conflict of interest when he was involved in making regulations governing paint and coating chemical manufacturing, the inspector general eventually expanded the scope of the investigation to include three other instances, which it also said "involved potential ethics violations."
"Our investigation found that in all four matters, EPA official Joseph Goffman failed to assess whether specific parties or industries posed a potential financial conflict-of-interest prior to participation," the inspector general concluded. "Our investigation also found that Goffman held financial interests in [two] rulemakings and failed to meet his ethical obligations under the federal financial conflicts-of-interest prohibition when he participated in both rulemakings."
In the first case, Goffman participated and green-lit the 2023 regulations impacting paint manufacturers while simultaneously owning a "disqualifying financial interest"—defined as owning a more than $25,000 stake of a conflicting entity—in Sherwin Williams, one of the largest paint makers in the world.
The rules established relatively loose new environmental restrictions on paint manufacturing that amount to just $6,700 in annual costs for Sherwin Williams, a company that boasts a market capitalization of more than $90 billion, and other paint makers.
Goffman, though, only approached federal ethics officials about his large stake in Sherwin Williams on Feb. 1, 2023, one day after signing off on the rulemaking. The inspector general found that Goffman failed to properly assess his financial interests in the matter and further "failed to meet his ethical obligations under the federal financial conflicts-of-interest prohibition by participating in the rulemaking."
Additionally, Goffman held large financial positions worth more than $25,000 in medical technology manufacturers Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic while participating in a rulemaking to curb the use of ethylene oxide, a chemical used for sterilization. Altogether, those companies own roughly 10 percent of the factories impacted by the regulations.
According to the inspector general, Goffman was "highly involved" with the regulations, which he eventually green-lit. As part of that heavy involvement, in late 2021, he met privately with officials from AdvaMed, an industry group that includes the three companies he held stakes in, and Medtronic to discuss the regulations.
Only in April 2022 did Goffman finally assess his stakes in the three companies and approach ethics officials about whether his involvement in the rulemaking was proper. EPA ethics officials mistakenly informed him that he had not violated any rules.
The inspector general concluded, however, that before April 2022, Goffman failed to meet his ethical obligations and should have recused himself from the matter, given his financial interests.
In the third case, the inspector general determined that Goffman failed to assess whether his regulatory actions on hydrofluorocarbons presented a conflict-of-interest with his more than $15,000 worth of financial interests in an unnamed chemical manufacturer.
Additionally, in the fourth case, Goffman similarly failed to conduct a proper conflict-of-interest assessment before participating in a roundtable with private sector officials on the deployment of major green energy programs, the watchdog said. The meeting included officials from Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan, of which Goffman owned stakes worth more than $15,000.
"We need transparency and accountability in the rulemaking process that recently has imposed crushing costs on our economy and American families," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R., W.Va.), the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement.
"This report deepens my concerns with the onslaught of regulations Assistant Administrator Goffman’s office has issued in the past three and half years," she continued.
Capito noted that Goffman only approached ethics officials about his potential conflicts of interest in the paint coating and sterilization matters after President Biden nominated him for the assistant administrator position in March 2022. That suggests he did so knowing her committee would oversee his actions at the EPA.
In a statement to the Washington Free Beacon, EPA spokesperson Nick Conger said the agency is still reviewing the inspector general's findings but reaffirmed its commitment to integrity and transparency.
"EPA is confident in the integrity of agency rulemakings and actions and remains committed to the highest level of scientific integrity and transparency," Conger said.
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