- Avi Garbow, a well-connected figure in the environmentalist movement, took a leave of absence from his job at Patagonia in 2021 to advise the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the behest of the White House, a move which several watchdog groups told the Daily Caller News Foundation is uncommon.
- Garbow has worked for the EPA in the past, as well as for left-of-center environmentalist organizations.
- “The Biden administration has already faced criticism that it allows progressive interests to shape the policy agenda rather than serving the best interests of the taxpayer” and “decisions like this do nothing to dispel the notion,” Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and founder of Open The Books, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The White House requested that a well-connected environmentalist take a leave of absence from his private job with a popular outdoor apparel company to consult the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2021, an arrangement which several government watchdog groups told the Daily Caller News Foundation is atypical.
Avi Garbow left his job as an environmental advocate at Patagonia in January 2021 to serve as senior counselor to the administrator of the EPA until June 2021 at the request of the White House, according to his LinkedIn profile. The White House’s request was “uncommon,” government watchdog groups told the DCNF, especially in light of a wider pattern whereby the Biden EPA’s senior political appointees share close ties with environmentalist interests.
“Effectively, the White House invited an outside interest group leader to steer a government agency from the inside, before immediately returning to his advocacy role,” Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and founder of Open The Books, told the DCNF. “If you can work to shape federal policy from the inside and out, you’re running the table,” he said, adding that “the Biden administration has already faced criticism that it allows progressive interests to shape the policy agenda rather than serving the best interests of the taxpayer” and “decisions like this do nothing to dispel the notion.”
Garbow worked for the EPA from 1992-1996 and 2013-2017, and worked on the Obama administration’s since-overturned Clean Power Plan in his second stint, according to the Federalist Society. He has also worked for several environmental and left-wing organizations, including the Resources Legacy Fund. He has also served as the president for the Fund for a Better Future, which “[upholds] democratic values, [protects] the environment, [improves] health and [advances] social equity,” according to his LinkedIn profile. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Top Biden EPA Nominee May Have ‘Violated’ Key Ethics Pledge, Watchdogs Say)
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The White House asked Garbow to advise the agency “to help ensure that the administration and EPA were positioned at the outset to successfully pursue an aggressive, protective, durable and equitable environmental and climate agenda, and return EPA to its mission of protecting public health and the environment for all Americans,” according to his LinkedIn profile.
After spending about six months consulting the EPA, he returned to his job at Patagonia as an environmental advocate for the company, which is known for allocating 1% of its sales to environmental causes. Subsequently, he became the president of the Resources Legacy Fund, a left-of-center environmental grant-making organization that also features former White House Climate Adviser and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy on its board of directors.
“This situation is uncommon but not unheard of, especially in today’s Environmental Protection Agency,” Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, told the DCNF. “We’ve been sounding the alarm about the EPA’s ‘revolving door’ for quite some time, and here’s another example,” he said, adding that “between the revolving door, the cozy relationships with activist groups and dubious ethics waivers, all abetted by career ethics officials, the agency clearly feels it’s not bound by normal ethical standards.
Garbow is not the only current or former political appointee in the EPA with close ties to environmentalist organizations, as Chamberlain alluded to. Other examples include a former Washington state official, who once worked for the co-founder of the U.S. Climate Alliance (USCA) and maintained a close relationship with the organization as a Biden political appointee at the EPA before leaving the government to go work for the USCA again, according to Protect the Public’s Trust.
In November 2022, the EPA met with several organizations connected to agency and administration officials to discuss a program that will shell out $20 billion worth of grants for environmentalist goals. The meeting occurred about a year before applications are due for the funding, and it is possible that several of the organizations in attendance could eventually receive grants from the program.
Neither the White House nor the EPA responded immediately to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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