Cliff Rothenstein is a government affairs advisor in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. Mr. Rothenstein focuses his practice on issues related to environmental policy, including issues arising under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Superfund cleanup, and brownfields and recycling policy.
Mr. Rothenstein has more then 30 years of congressional and federal executive experience. Mr. Rothenstein served as a professional staff member for almost a decade on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee under Senator Max Baucus (D-MT). While with the committee, he advised members on virtually all environmental matters including Superfund reauthorization, brownfields, and the Clean Air Act. After that experience, Mr. Rothenstein worked at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Solid Waste and Hazardous Response, the top administration official for brownfields, recycling and Superfund efforts. Mr. Rothenstein also served as EPA's director of the Office of Underground Tanks. While with the EPA, he led the agency's Superfund reauthorization efforts which resulted in the enactment of the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act and the Superfund Recycling Act. He also successfully implemented key provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 regulating gas stations and underground storage tanks. Before joining K&L Gates, Mr. Rothenstein served most recently as the director of the Office of Legislative Affairs and Policy Communications at the Federal Highway Administration where he served as the primary point of contact with Congress on the surface transportation reauthorization and other legislative and policy matters.