White House’s Environmental Policy Office Shakes Up Legal Team

The White House’s environmental policy shop is overhauling the ranks at the top of its legal team.

Emma Cheuse will become the top legal official at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, stepping up from her former role as deputy general counsel.

As general counsel, Cheuse will provide legal advice to CEQ and help it determine which legal courses of action are appropriate across the agency’s portfolio.

CEQ has a hand in a range of activities, including supporting the White House’s efforts to advance environmental justice, increasing electric vehicle adoption, helping the federal government transition toward clean energy, and designating and expanding national monuments.

Cheuse is a former senior attorney at Earthjustice, where she served for more than 14 years, often representing groups that were petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency to set more protective air and chemical standards. She joined CEQ in late 2022. She also served as a law clerk for Senior Judge Judith Rogers of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Cheuse replaces Justin Pidot, who was CEQ’s general counsel almost since the beginning of the Biden administration.

Pidot is rejoining the University of Arizona’s James E. College of Law to co-direct its environmental law program.

Pidot helped CEQ accomplish arguably its primary mission under President Joe Biden: reshaping federal permitting rules to undo Trump-era changes, while simultaneously speeding up work needed for renewable energy.

With that job done, the agency’s leadership is taking stock of what they can get done in the remaining months of Biden’s first term, CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory recently said.

Amy Coyle, CEQ’s former deputy general counsel, will be elevated to the role of principal deputy general counsel. Coyle previously served as a senior attorney adviser at the Department of Transportation.