Personnel Notes

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Action Fund named a new interim executive director on Friday.

Andy Buchsbaum will lead the environmental organization’s political arm while continuing to serve as regional executive director for NWF’s Great Lakes Regional Center.

A top biofuel trade group named a new communications director on Monday.

Dawn Schueller Moore joined the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) to lead its press shop, the organization announced Monday. 

Ignacia Moreno, head of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, is stepping down after a tenure that has included defense of federal greenhouse gas rules and the ongoing civil prosecution over BP’s 2010 oil spill.

Moreno, who won Senate confirmation in November of 2009, plans to leave the Justice Department (DOJ) early in June, the DOJ announced Wednesday.

Denise Bode, the former head of wind and oil and gas industry trade groups, is now a principal with the prominent lobbying firm Cornerstone Government Affairs.

Bode recently stepped down as head of the American Wind Energy Association, and previously held top jobs with the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the American Clean Skies Foundation, a natural gas group.

“I am excited about the tax and energy practices at Cornerstone. The stage is set for action on energy, as well as tax policy,” Bode said in a statement.

The wind industry’s main trade association has snagged Tom Kiernan, the longtime president of the National Parks Conservation Association, to be the energy group’s next CEO.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) is bringing him on board as the growing industry faces major political battles, including the looming expiration of a key tax credit that received a short-term extension in January's fiscal cliff agreement.

“Bringing Tom Kiernan aboard as CEO represents a huge win for AWEA and another step forward in our efforts to elevate wind energy’s role as a critical national resource,” said Tom Carnahan, chairman of the board for AWEA.

Solar power trade group Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) named its new vice president of federal affairs on Tuesday.

The former head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) is heading to Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy.

Former IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka will join the think tank as a non-resident fellow. He starts June 1.

The Center on Global Energy Policy said Tanaka will focus on "global security challenges for Asian economies, including the natural gas trade, power grid connection and nuclear policy."

The former long-time chief of staff for Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is now lobbying for ExxonMobil Corp. on energy, environment and tax issues, according to documents made public in mid-April.

ExxonMobil retained Josh Kardon, who served on Wyden’s staff from 1992 until 2011, through lobby shop Capitol Hill Consulting Group. Kardon is senior vice president with the firm.

Kardon will bring intimate knowledge about Wyden, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The Sierra Club has hired Dean Hubbard, former senior counsel for the Transport Workers Union, to be the environmental group’s labor director.

“A tireless advocate for workers’ rights and climate justice, Dean’s passion and breadth of experience are sure to strengthen our movement to build a clean energy economy that creates good jobs and works for all Americans,” said Cathy Duvall, the Sierra Club’s director of strategic partnerships.

The Sierra Club has long worked with organized labor. Its years-long collaboration with the United Steelworkers grew in 2006 into the broader BlueGreen Alliance, which includes a number of environmental groups and unions.

But the debate over the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline has largely split labor and environmentalists, as well as led the Laborers’ International Union of North America to quit the BlueGreen Alliance last year.

An aide of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Energy and Water is leaving to join the Energy Department (DOE).