WASHINGTON (September 24, 2025) — E&E News today profiled Edison Electric Institute (EEI) President and CEO Drew Maloney, highlighting his decades of experience in Washington and his priorities for EEI.

During the conversation with E&E News, Drew reflected on:

• His vision for EEI: “Two of my big areas of focus going forward are continuing to emphasize the advocacy and the communications that come out of EEI… At the end of the day, trade associations are advocacy organizations. Our job is to protect the franchise of the members that we represent, protect their license to operate by mitigating risk and creating value, and that's what we do here at a trade association.”
• Providing reliable, affordable energy for customers nationwide: “We’re doing all we can at the federal level and at the state level to work with policymakers to ensure that the legislative and regulatory environment reduces the cost for electricity. If you take a transmission line that should take two years to build but it’s currently taking seven years, that cost is borne by the consumer, and that’s just unfair to the consumer.”

You can read the full profile here or below:

New EEI chief has navigated Republican, private equity politics
By: Timothy Cama

Drew Maloney, the Edison Electric Institute’s new president, has a lengthy record in lobbying, Congress and presidential politics. He'll need to draw on that experience as he seeks to steady a group that has been beset by leadership turmoil and staffing losses.

Maloney’s hiring, after seven years as a lobbyist for the private equity association American Investment Council, came after Dan Brouillette, the former Energy secretary, led EEI for less than one year, before abruptly departing in October 2024 amid rifts with member companies. EEI had a record of stable leadership previously, with Tom Kuhn serving as president for more than three decades.

A number of other longtime leaders have left EEI recently as well, including Emily Fisher, the former executive vice president of clean energy, and Brian Wolff, the past head of policy and external affairs. The group also laid off some workers shortly before Maloney started.

Maloney, who worked at Treasury during Donald Trump's first term, as an adviser on Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign and an aide to former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), said he couldn’t speak to what happened before he got to EEI but laid out a vision for the future under his leadership.

“Two of my big areas of focus going forward are continuing to emphasize the advocacy and the communications that come out of EEI,” he said.

“At the end of the day, trade associations are advocacy organizations. Our job is to protect the franchise of the members that we represent, protect their license to operate by mitigating risk and creating value, and that's what we do here at a trade association,” he said.

Maloney’s appointment continues a political shift for EEI. While Kuhn was a Republican, his politics were not a major focus in his three decades there. And Wolff, the former head lobbyist, once worked for congressional Democratic leadership.

But Brouillette was a central figure in Trump’s pro-fossil-fuel energy policy. And he came to EEI as the group took a more hostile posture toward environmental regulations, turning away from its record of negotiating on climate change and similar matters.

Maloney, 56, took the helm of the association that represents private, investor-owned electric utilities on July 1, at a rocky time for the sector. Congress voted days after he took the job to terminate a range of clean energy tax credits. Electricity prices are on the rise, an issue poised to dominate the midterm elections next year.

Maloney said EEI is fully aware of the concern over electricity prices.

“We’re doing all we can at the federal level and at the state level to work with policymakers to ensure that the legislative and regulatory environment reduces the cost for electricity,” he said. “If you take a transmission line that should take two years to build but it’s currently taking seven years, that cost is borne by the consumer, and that’s just unfair to the consumer.”

Indeed, the group is pushing congressional leaders on a host of issues, including bipartisan permitting overhaul. In a letter to congressional leaders this month, the group backed the environmental streamlining bill by House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and sought changes to water permitting, among other asks.

And while Maloney noted the coming "off-ramp" for green tax credits as a result of the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, he said that "in some areas of the country, solar and wind are competitive with gas," a seeming divergence with Trump administration dismissals of renewables as a reliable source of electricity.

Maloney has started building out his own team. He brought over Emily Schillinger from AIC to be chief communications officer, and hired Kiel Weaver, a Republican past House Natural Resources Committee aide and NextEra Energy official, who is the organization’s chief advocacy officer.

Rachael Marsh, who used to be a partner at law and lobbying firm Bracewell and later a Calpine Corp. official, is the utility group's new chief legal officer.

Long history with GOP

Maloney’s resume includes a cross-section of Washington jobs.

He grew up in the Shenandoah Valley in rural Virginia and went to Randolph-Macon College. He started working in state politics shortly after graduating in 1991, and later moved to Washington, where he worked for congressional Republicans, including then-House Majority Whip DeLay.

It was in GOP leadership where he learned to build consensus among large, sometimes disparate groups — a skill that helped him later in multimember associations where disagreement is the norm.

He joined the Federalist Group lobbying firm in 2002 as managing director. The organization became Ogilvy Government Relations in 2005, and he was promoted to CEO in 2009. It was originally a Republican firm but started hiring Democratic lobbyists in 2006.

Maloney, long involved with the Republican National Committee and a GOP fundraiser, worked for Romney’s presidential campaign in 2008, when the Massachusetts governor lost the Republican primary to John McCain.

Maloney then worked for the 2012 campaign, serving as the GOP nominee’s liaison to Capitol Hill, as well as taking on some other policy roles.

He went to Hess after Romney’s loss to Barack Obama, then went to the Treasury Department in 2017 and AIC in 2018.

As Hess Corp.’s top lobbyist, he helped orchestrate the bipartisan congressional deal that lifted the crude oil export ban in 2015. At AIC, he fended off numerous proposals — including one earlier this year — to change the key favorable tax treatment for carried interest, the investment fund manager’s share of returns.

In 2017, when he was the top congressional liaison for the Treasury Department, Maloney helped shepherd through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Trump’s signature first-term tax law.

'Political competence is so important'

People who have worked with Maloney say he’s uniquely suited to one of Washington’s top-tier lobbying jobs.

“His experiences have given him a unique set of skills and perspectives,” said Wayne Berman, a fellow early leader at Ogilvy and Romney fundraiser. Berman now leads government affairs for Blackstone, the private equity firm, and worked closely with Maloney at AIC.

“Political competence is so important and intertwined with being able to achieve objectives,” Berman said, pointing to Maloney’s ability to connect issues not just to Washington, but to the states and districts lawmakers represent. “I’m a little bit upset with EEI for spiriting him away from us, but I’m also happy for Drew.”

Ken Mehlman, who chaired the Republican National Committee from 2005 to 2007, said Maloney excels as a strategist. Mehlman is head of public policy for private equity firm KKR and also worked with Maloney at AIC.

“Drew understands how policy and politics work today, which is not by having individuals make important decisions but rather by having an ecosystem approach,” Mehlman said.

“He understands that elected officials are going to be influenced by what happens to important constituents in their districts, and he understands that think tanks have an important role to play, grass tops, grass roots, journalists and all matters of staffers matter," he said. "And he engages all of them.”

Saat Alety, who was a Republican aide to the Senate Banking Committee during debates around the 2017 tax bill, said Maloney stood out during that process for being well prepared and knowledgeable about the issues being discussed. He often engaged with congressional staff, not just the lawmakers themselves, Alety said.

“There are a lot of people who would have this position who would delegate that and wouldn’t necessarily want to mix it up,” he said.

“His time in the private sector and with Republican politics gave him a very adept understanding of the shades of the Republican spectrum," Alety said. "I thought he navigated that very well."