Jeffrey Wood

Jeffrey H. Wood (born c. 1979) is the Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Environment and Natural Resources Division. He previously served as Republican staff director for two U.S. Senate subcommittees. He was also a member of Senator Jeff Sessions' staff, providing counsel on environmental issues.

Wood was the son of an Air Force officer. He attended primary school in Waldorf, Maryland and graduated from high school in Jacksonville, Florida. He earned his bachelor's degree in economics and international affairs in 2000, and a juris doctorate in 2003, at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. In law school he wrote a paper suggesting the the Constitution's commerce clause could be used to restrict application of the Endangered Species Act. He joined Balch & Bingham attorneys in Birmingham that same year, and worked in the firm's energy and environment department, headed by Steven McKinney. In his work, he has continued to explore of potential of the commerce clause to limit the role of the U.S. government in issues related to the environment.

Wood left Birmingham in 2007 to take a position as assistant in-house counsel for the Ingram Barge Company of Nashville, Tennessee. In 2011 he was appointed Republican Staff Director for the Senate Subcommittee on Water & Wildlife in the 112 U.S. Congress. He moved to the same position on the Subcommittee on Clean Air & Nuclear Safety with the 113th Congress.

In June 2014 Wood returned to Balch & Bingham, and worked in the firm's District of Columbia office, acting as a government lobbyist on behalf of Southern Company and the Alabama Power Company. He was appointed from there to his acting post in the Department of Justice by President-elect Donald Trump in January 2017.

Trump later appointed Washington D.C. attorney Jeffrey B. Clark to the permanent post in June 2017. Wood continues to serve pending Clark's confirmation by the U.S. Senate. On the many cases before the Department requiring Wood's recusal, fellow former Sessions staffer Brandon Middleton is assuming his duties.

References

• Reilly, Amanda & Jeremy P. Jacobs (April 12, 2017) "This man may steer environmental law under Trump." E & E News
• Reilly, Sean (April 25, 2017) "Many recusals for acting chief of DOJ environment section." E & E News
• Graber-Stiehl, Ian (June 28, 2017) "Eau de Bull: A Cologne of Arsenic and Environmental Racism for Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Wood." The Root.