Elizabeth Klein is an attorney specializing in energy, environmental law and public policy. She directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management from 2023 to 2025 and previously held senior positions at the Interior Department and New York University's State Energy and Environmental Impact Center.
We have documented 1 statement by Elizabeth Klein, in 1 case. Each statement below gives the quotation, its original source and a link to the full case.
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Role at the time: Former director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Condemned
Statement summary
Klein says the agreements show Interior replacing an unlawful cancellation plan with unprecedented payments. She argues BOEM lacks authority simply to return the money.
“The posting of these agreements affirms what many of us have been concerned about, namely that DOI intended to violate the law by canceling Total’s offshore wind leases and is now instead paying them off with an enormous, unprecedented amount of taxpayer money,”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Klein and Irish question legal basis for wind lease refundsDirect quotations from Klein and Irish; lease-cancellation and Judgment Fund analysis
Why we used this label
She expressly argues the cancellation and payment strategy is unlawful.
Interior paid TotalEnergies, Invenergy, and Bluepoint Wind more than $2.3 billion to cancel offshore wind leases in 2026. State attorneys general and members of Congress say the payments broke the Judgment Fund Act. Interior says the payments were lawful, voluntary refunds.
