DOJ nominee's industry experience a worry for some

The corporate background of President Obama's pick for the nation's top environmental litigator has spurred concerns that she is ill-suited to lead the office charged with tackling corporate polluters. Obama announced plans earlier this week to nominate Ignacia Moreno, counsel of corporate environmental programs at General Electric Corp., to serve as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. If confirmed by the Senate, Moreno would take the helm of the office tasked with enforcing environmental laws and defending federal regulations in lawsuits. But environmental groups fear that Moreno's tenure as a corporate attorney makes her a poor choice to lead the nation's environmental litigation efforts. "The question is: Is she the best possible person for that job, given the sensitive nature of that position?" said Frank O'Donnell, president of the advocacy group Clean Air Watch. "It seems as if she has spent maybe more time defending polluters than prosecuting them." Prior to joining GE in 2006, Moreno worked at the Washington law firm Spriggs & Hollingsworth, where she specialized in environmental and mass tort litigation. She also worked for DOJ during the Clinton administration, serving as special assistant and principal counsel to the assistant attorney general for the environment division. She began her career at Hogan & Hartson LLP, where she practiced with the firm's environmental and litigation groups. "There's a huge amount of concern circulating through the environmental community" about Moreno's nomination, said Alex Matthiessen, president of the New York-based environmental group Riverkeeper...NYTimes