Obama energy official maintains interests in "green" companies that benefit from her insider status

• Ms. Zoi is former CEO of Al Gore "climate" shakedown group Alliance for Climate Protection.

6/17: "Documents obtained from the Department of Energy and elsewhere appear to present a prima facie case of a senior Obama administration official, Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Cathy Zoi, participating substantially in decisions impacting companies in which she is heavily invested. This flouts ethics requirements and would be a violation of U.S. criminal law.

• The Department of Energy has yet to provide additional requested documents regarding Zoi.
  
• Even more troubling, the designated ethics officer has so far refused to even acknowledge the request for records she is required by law to provide the public.

Ms. Zoi’s conflicts of interest have been reported previously at PJM....

In the financial disclosure filed by Zoi (former CEO of Al Gore’s pressure group Alliance for Climate Protection), Ms. Zoi attests that she and her husband have divested themselves of numerous utility and other energy-related company stock, for the obvious ethical and appearance problems of holding such assets while serving as a senior official in the Department of Energy.

• Yet, as I have learned through independent sources,
  

Ms. Zoi is not recusing herself broadly as would seem to be required. She remains deeply involved in developing and implementing policies that directly impact the interests of companies in which she and her husband maintain large holdings.

The Freedom Foundation of Minnesota has also kindly directed me to Zoi’s direct advocacy supporting one of these companies. This comes in the rather inescapable form of testimony to Congress, where she championed a major new program that would

• directly benefit the company for which her husband works — “green window” vendor Serious Materials.
  
• The Zois maintained ownership of 120,000 shares in Serious Materials — previously obscure, but now an administration favorite — as well as stock options.

In her financial disclosure, however, Zoi vowed to recuse herself from “[participating] personally and substantially in any particular matter that has a direct and predictable effect on the financial interest” on Serious Materials or the Swiss “smart meter” producer Landis+Gyr, without obtaining a waiver first.

• This is as a condition of her employment with the Obama administration, but also to be in compliance with the criminal code.

Although the DoE’s ethics officer has still not responded, through other means I have obtained documents indicating Ms. Zoi has not recused herself from relevant policies.

Zoi’s congressional testimony, however, seems to make that point moot. In her testimony,

• Zoi advocates appropriation of millions of taxpayer dollars to schemes from which Serious Materials benefits both directly and indirectly. A major component of “green retrofitting” is replacing a building’s windows, which is Serious Materials’ business.

In a posting on their website, Serious Materials specifically praises the “stimulus” bill and its largess, something promoted with equal zeal by Zoi in her testimony."...via Tom Nelson