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The man chosen by President Donald Trump to be deputy director of the federal agency that protects the public from environmental hazards is a lawyer who has represented companies accused of harming people and the environment through pollution.
David Fotouhi, a partner at global law firm Gibson Dunn, played a key role in rolling back climate regulations and water protections while serving as an attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency during the first Trump administration.
Most recently, Fotouhi challenged the EPA’s recent ban on asbestos, which causes a deadly cancer called mesothelioma. In a brief filed in October on behalf of a group of auto companies called the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, he said that certain prohibited uses “do not imply that chrysotile asbestos poses an unreasonable risk of injury. EPA has not been able to prove that.”
The EPA banned the carcinogen in March, long after its dangers first became widely known. More than 50 other countries have banned the use of this mineral. As a 2022 ProPublica investigation showed, the agency has been working toward a ban for decades, but employees have died while lobbyists have tried to delay action.
This week, less than a day after President Trump took office, a White House webpage celebrating the historic ban disappeared.
Fotouhi’s nomination as EPA deputy administrator still requires Senate confirmation.
Asbestos regulations are just one of several environmental issues central to the EPA’s regulatory mission, and Fotouhi has represented companies accused of contamination. The 39-year-old lawyer is expected to play a key role in the agency’s operations and represented International Paper in a lawsuit accusing the company of contamination with PFAS (“forever chemicals”). A tire company that allegedly released a chemical known to kill endangered salmon (the company disputes that claim and is fighting a lawsuit). A coalition of Washington state businesses has sued the EPA over water quality standards for traditional contaminants known as PCBs.
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Environmentalists are calling on Fotouhi to recuse himself from decisions regarding asbestos and other issues he has been working on recently at Gibson Dunn. “There’s a guy who wrote a very biased and one-sided attack on EPA regulations regarding asbestos, and I don’t want him anywhere near EPA decision-making regarding asbestos regulations,” said the president of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. said Robert Sussman, an attorney who served as deputy EPA administrator under the Clinton administration.
“I have removed myself from all matters related to former clients,” Sussman said.
Fotouhi declined to comment on the matter.
The Government Ethics Act requires lawyers to recuse themselves for one year from matters in which they provided service in the previous year.
The issue may be just a formality for an administration that took steps from day one to roll back environmental and health protections put in place by the previous administration. Within hours of taking office on Monday, President Trump ordered the United States to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, halted lease approvals for new offshore wind projects in federal waters, and rescinded several executive orders on climate change. Ta.
It is not uncommon for political appointees at the EPA to have ties to industry, especially in Republican administrations. Among those returning to the agency from President Trump’s first term is Nancy Beck, a former lobbyist for the American Chemistry Council, an influential industry group. Aaron Szabo, a lobbyist who represented the American Petroleum Institute and contributed to EPA’s Project Chapter 2025. Lynn Dekleba also worked at the American Chemistry Council and DuPont.
When announcing Fotouhi’s nomination on Truth Social earlier this month, President Trump wrote: “David will work with our incredible EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to advance pro-growth policies, unlock America’s energy advantage, and prioritize clean air, clean water, and a clean environment.” Soil for. ” Zeldin, a former Long Island state representative with little experience in environmental issues, could be essential to Trump’s pick to run the agency.
While working at EPA during the first Trump administration, Mr. Fotouhi served as Deputy General Counsel and Acting General Counsel. He played a central role in revising the U.S. Waters Regulations, which removed federal protections from wetlands and streams. He later described this as some of his most important works. Gibson-Dunn’s online biography also states that he “played a key role in developing litigation strategies to defend” the agency’s decision not to impose financial requirements on companies that extract minerals and ores from rock. Environmentalists had called for requirements to protect taxpayers from being responsible for costly environmental cleanups.
Fotouhi also advocated for landfills and ponds containing coal ash to be considered “clean” even if they don’t meet the agency’s usual standards. That’s an advantageous position for the coal industry, according to one waste expert who worked with Trump during the Trump administration. . “Dave was adamant on that issue,” said a former colleague, who requested anonymity to avoid public involvement in political debate. A former colleague described Fotouhi as an excellent lawyer who knows environmental laws but is “not afraid to get creative” to find ways to use that knowledge to gain an industry-friendly position. .
According to his bio on the firm’s website, the Harvard-educated Mr. Fotouhi led a firm of hundreds of lawyers at Gibson Dunn, defended clients, and covered all major environmental law matters, according to his bio on the firm’s website. Provided legal advice under. He represented International Paper in two lawsuits involving PFAS, persistent industrial chemicals that cause cancer and other illnesses. The chemical was at the center of two cases in which the company was accused of distributing biosolids containing PFAS in Maine. Biosolids, or sludge, have been found to contribute to PFAS contamination of food and water across the state. (Gibson Dunn is representing ProPublica pro bono in its lawsuit against the U.S. Navy.)
Nathan Sanders, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, learned in 2021 that his well water in Fairfield, Maine, contained extremely high concentrations of chemicals. After learning that PFAS was linked to kidney damage, the discovery made sense to the lifelong Maine resident, whose wife suffered from kidney failure more than a decade ago.
Mr. Fotouhi successfully had his client dismissed from Mr. Sanders’ case, arguing that there was no information linking the company’s actions to the water contamination. Sanders’ attorney, Elizabeth Bailey, said this legal strategy is common among companies facing PFAS contamination lawsuits and is difficult for plaintiffs to navigate without access to internal information. “They say, ‘Yes, there is contamination, but there is no way to tell whose contamination it is. And by the way, how did our contamination get from our location to your client’s location? If we can’t specifically identify what’s going on, we say, ‘We shouldn’t be involved in this case at the beginning of the case,”’ Bailey said.
Fotouhi also sought to overturn EPA water quality standards for toxic chemicals known as PCBs, which have been linked to cancer. He filed a lawsuit against the agency in December 2023 on behalf of a Washington state business group that said it was impossible to meet the standards.
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If EPA chooses not to continue litigation, these standards could be overturned. The loss would have a devastating impact on the waterway, said Caitlin Scott, water conservation officer for Spokane Riverkeeper, an advocacy group dedicated to protecting the river and its watershed. “If EPA does not take the lead to protect fish, our rivers will be exposed to higher levels of pollution, putting fish and people at real risk of harm.” she said.
Philip Landrigan, a physician who has spent decades protecting public health from environmental threats, said the potential consequences could be equally dire if the EPA chooses to repeal the asbestos ban. He said it would happen.
“President Trump came into office saying he was going to make life better for working Americans,” Landrigan said. Reversing the decades-old asbestos ban “would expose working American women and men to known human carcinogens and ignore that promise.” he said.
Kirsten Berg contributed to the research.
