Obama's Environmental Pick Is Tight With the Enemy

President Obama's pick to run the Justice Department's environmental unit has an impressive resume when it comes to lawsuits against giant polluters. Trouble is, say her critics, all that experience has come from working with the bad guys. Ignacia Moreno, currently an attorney for GE, has spent years defending the nation's biggest corporations in Superfund cases. Several EPA lawyers tell ProPublica that any attorney with her background has no business trying to reverse course and police polluters.

GE, for instance, has been linked to 116 Superfund sites, second most in the nation. Its attorneys are expert at playing the environmental legal system, which Moreno's supporters say would actually make her a stronger government enforcer. Moreno said in a Senate questionnaire that she would recuse herself from any GE case for two years. Her confirmation hearings begin in a few weeks.
(More Ignacia Moreno stories.)