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Rafael Moure-Eraso stepped down from his role as chairman of
the CSB, an independent federal agency responsible for
investigating industrial and chemical accidents.
"The White House asked for and received Dr. Rafael Moure-Eraso's
resignation," the official said.
His term was up in June and earlier this month Obama nominated
Vanessa Sutherland, a lawyer at the pipeline safety office, for
the position.
On March 18, 14 members of the House of Representatives
oversight committee called on Obama to remove Moure-Eraso and
two other agency officials, Richard Loeb and Daniel Horowitz.
The lawmakers, including panel Chairman Jason Chaffetz and top
Democrat Elijah Cummings, accused Moure-Eraso of malfeasance and
"toxic leadership" saying that led to the departure of qualified
staff and resulted in delays in investigating accidents at
chemical plants and oil refineries.
Last year two Congressional committees said in a report
Moure-Eraso and others created a "abusive and hostile work
environment" and that the CSB struggled to finish investigations
into serious accidents, including one into the 2010 explosion at
Tesoro Petroleum Corp's refinery in Anacortes, Washington, that
killed seven people.
Moure-Eraso defended himself at the time in a prepared statement
for a congressional hearing saying that the CSB was a small
agency carrying out large, complex investigations. He added that
the U.S. General Accountability Office had faulted the board's
management in a 2008 report.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Timothy Gardner; Editing by
Sandra Maler)
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