"Citing a Public Domain exposé, House Democrats ask Interior’s watchdog to investigate potential ethics violations by acting BOEM director Matt Giacona"
"Matt Giacona is a young offshore oil industry operative who has risen fast in Trump’s Washington. Formerly a lobbyist for the powerful National Ocean Industries Association, he was selected earlier this year to serve as the acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a key Interior Department agency that oversees resource extraction on the Outer Continental Shelf. Giacona’s appointment puts an offshore oil lobbyist in charge of the very federal agency responsible for regulating offshore oil interests. It is classic Washington D.C. swamp stuff — and typical of Trump’s Interior Department, where former fossil fuel lobbyists now staff key government offices and work to fulfill the policy priorities of Big Oil and other industry sectors. Giacona, though, seems to be stumbling in the muck.
On Thursday, Congressional Democrats sent a letter to the Interior Department’s Inspector General asking for an investigation into the up-and-coming former lobbyist. Specifically, Rep. Jared Huffman of California and his Democratic colleagues on the House Natural Resources Committee want a probe into “whether Mr. Giacona violated federal ethics requirements or guidance by using his position to give his former industry association or its Big Oil member companies special access to the agency that regulates them.” The request comes on the heels of a Public Domain investigation published in June that detailed Giacona’s use of his new government position to work on specific policy matters that were previously the focus of his pro-oil lobbying career.
“Matt Giacona is a highly qualified and ethically sound employee who is working tirelessly on behalf of this administration to make real change for the American people,” an Interior Department spokesperson said in an email statement.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, did not immediately respond to a request for comment."
Jimmy Tobias, Hana Beach, and Chris D'Angelo report for Public Domain October 9, 2025.
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