Beth A. Viola

Beth A. Viola is a senior policy advisor in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office where she is the chair of the firm's Energy and Natural Resources Industry Sector Group. Possessing decades of experience in climate change and energy policy, Ms. Viola advises a range of corporate clients, coalitions and industry associations on public policy related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions and the transition to a low carbon economy, including the funding and deployment of clean energy and innovative technologies and advocacy on related environment, tax, trade and appropriations issues.

Ms. Viola has deep and longstanding connections with the environmental community and an impressive track record in building, managing and successfully advocating on behalf of coalitions essential to shaping legislation and regulation. Lobbying extensively before the White House, federal agencies and Congress, Ms. Viola brings together businesses and powerful third-party voices in the non-governmental organization (NGO) space to deliver policy solutions that benefit both businesses and the environment. She also provides strategic, policy and political advice to companies across the energy, transportation, industrial and agriculture sectors with an emphasis on both domestic and international climate policy.

Ms. Viola has enabled her clients to impact all of the major federal energy legislation passed over the last 20 years, including most recently the Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and Energy Policy Act of 2020. She lobbies before the White House, Office of Domestic Climate Policy, National Economic Council (NEC), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on implementation related to this legislation and other laws impacting the energy sector. Similarly, she has worked extensively on a variety of renewable development tax issues enacted through legislation, including the development and successful extensions of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and incentives related to biofuels, such as the biodiesel and renewable diesel tax credits.

Given the important role that regulation plays in the energy and environment space, Ms. Viola has advocated on behalf of clients in the development and implementation of numerous complex regulatory schemes related to GHG emissions reductions. She possesses particularly deep familiarity with the Clean Air Act programs, including the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and power sector emissions reductions schemes such as the Clean Power Plan. Ms. Viola has also worked extensively on federal procurement related to renewable energy, having successfully encouraged government procurement of renewable energy including renewable fuels through both executive branch advocacy before the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and defense legislation, such as the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

In addition to her domestic policy work, Ms. Viola has guided clients through major international climate negotiations, including United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meetings and development of the Paris Agreement, as well as Arctic climate issues and the Arctic Council. She frequently speaks on domestic and international energy and climate issues and has been quoted extensively in the media.

During the Clinton Administration, Ms. Viola served as a senior advisor to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In this role, she advised the president, vice president and senior government officials on environmental and energy issues, concentrating on climate change, natural resources and smart growth. She was also the primary White House liaison on these issues to elected officials, industry, environmental, religious and labor leaders, as well as the media.

Ms. Viola was one of Vice President Al Gore's chief environmental advisors in the White House and later during his presidential campaign. She also served as a senior advisor for energy and environmental policy for then-Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign in both the primary and general election. Ms. Viola later served as a facilitator for climate change discussions at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Prior to joining the White House, Ms. Viola worked on Capitol Hill.