Joseph Goffman

Joseph Goffman "is an attorney and consultant on environmental law and policy issues in Washington, DC. Between 1992 and 2004, Goffman was a senior attorney at Environmental Defense (formerly known as the Environmental Defense Fund), where, in addition to managing the climate and air quality program, he specialized in the use of market-based mechanisms to address a wide range of air pollution problems. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Environmental Resources Trust, a not-for-profit organization that he and two colleagues founded with the help of Environmental Defense in order to create innovative market-based projects and transactions that yield environmental benefits.

"As associate counsel to the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the U.S. Senate in 1989 and 1990, he was chiefly responsible for the development and drafting of Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, which established the acid rain trading system. In addition, in 1991, he spent a year as a special assistant and acting section chief in the U.S. EPA overseeing the development and drafting of the proposed rules governing the trading of sulfur dioxide emissions allowances under Title IV. Goffman’s experience includes direct involvement with governments, on the international, national and state levels, as well as with private firms, in the design of a variety of marketable permit programs (including extensive participation in the negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol and its implementing rules), covering both conventional pollutants and greenhouse gases. In the early 1980s, Mr. Goffman was an associate in commercial litigation for the New York law firm of Weil, Gotshal and Manges. Goffman received undergraduate and law degrees from Yale University in 1976 and 1979, respectively.“


 * Former Director, Environmental Resources Trust