Andrea Woods — Deputy Director, Office of Public Affairs, DOE
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Andrea Woods — Deputy Director, Office of Public Affairs, DOE

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Andrea Woods — Deputy Director, Office of Public Affairs, DOE

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Agency: U.S. Department of Energy Role: Deputy Director, Office of Public Affairs (February 2025 – present; served as Acting Director of Public Affairs by May 2025) Severity: P2

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Bio and Background {#bio}

Andrea Woods serves as the Deputy Director of the Office of Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy, appointed by Secretary Chris Wright and announced as part of the initial senior leadership team on February 13, 2025. By May 2025, DOE organizational charts obtained by the law firm Mintz show her listed as Acting Director of the full Office of Public Affairs — a promotion from the Deputy Director title announced at appointment.

Education: Woods is a graduate of Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), as documented in her Twitter profile bio. Her education year is not fully documented in available public records.

Prior government service (first Trump administration): Woods served in the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) communications office during the first Trump administration — documented by her Twitter biography, which references “@whceq45” (the first Trump term CEQ account). She also served in EPA communications during this period, as reflected in the same biography. The White House CEQ coordinates federal environmental policy; her service there during Trump’s first term placed her in the communications apparatus for the rollback of environmental regulations.

American Petroleum Institute (API) career: Before joining DOE, Woods held senior communications roles at the American Petroleum Institute — the largest oil and gas industry trade group in the United States:

  • Deputy Director of Public Affairs, API (approximately August 2024 – February 2025) — per LegiStorm records
  • Director of Media Relations, API — prior role at API, including a period documented by RocketReach and industry sources as “Media Relations Manager at API”

Per LegiStorm’s entry, Woods subsequently returned to API in a director-level media relations role beginning January 2026, though this has not been independently confirmed through DOE press releases. Her DOE appointment page does not reflect a departure.

The pipeline from the American Petroleum Institute — the primary lobbying and communications arm of the U.S. oil and gas industry — to the Department of Energy’s public affairs office represents a direct industry-to-regulator communications pathway.

Twitter bio (documented): “Media Relations @APIenergy – Former @whceq45 and @EPA comms – NH native and @BU_CAS alum” (as of the period prior to DOE appointment). Her X handle is @andreanwoods1.

Role and Communications Function {#role}

Woods works in close coordination with Ben Dietderich, the Press Secretary and Chief Spokesperson. As Deputy Director and Acting Director, she is responsible for the strategic direction of DOE’s public communications operations, including managing the department’s external messaging on Secretary Wright’s “energy dominance” agenda.

The DOE Office of Public Affairs under the Wright administration serves as the communications platform for a significant policy shift:

  • Fossil fuel expansion: Coal, oil, gas, and LNG export promotion
  • Renewable energy minimization: Rollback of Obama and Biden-era clean energy programs
  • Nuclear power promotion: Small modular reactor funding and nuclear permitting
  • AI infrastructure: Framing AI power demands as requiring expanded fossil and nuclear baseload
  • Grant cancellations: Public defense of terminations of Biden-era clean energy investments
  • Vocabulary management: Internal guidance on energy terminology (see controversies)

Woods has been directly quoted in major DOE statements, indicating she functions as an active public spokesperson, not merely a behind-the-scenes official.

Messaging Strategy {#messaging-strategy}

Woods’s documented public communications follow the same framework as Dietderich’s, centered on the Wright administration’s “energy dominance” framing. Key narrative pillars include:

  1. “Consumer choice” framing: Policies restricting renewable energy mandates are presented as expanding consumer choice rather than as fossil fuel protection.
  2. AI + energy leadership: U.S. energy leadership in the AI era is consistently linked to reliable, dispatchable (fossil/nuclear) power.
  3. Pro-coal, gas, nuclear language: Explicit promotion of “coal, natural gas and nuclear energy” as DOE policy priorities.
  4. Trump “leadership” attribution: Policy directions are routinely attributed to “President Trump’s leadership” in official statements.

These messaging pillars are consistent with positions Woods would have developed and articulated during her tenure at the American Petroleum Institute, creating a high degree of continuity between her industry communications work and her government communications work.

Significant Public Statements {#statements}

EIA Annual Energy Outlook statement (DOE.gov, 2025): The Department of Energy issued an official statement attributed to “DOE Spokesperson Andrea Woods” in response to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2025. The statement read, in part: “Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Energy is charting a new way forward for America’s energy future that promotes greater consumer choice, ensures the U.S. has the power to lead the world in AI development and expands economic growth fueled by American energy dominance. Work is already underway at DOE to advance production of affordable, reliable and secure energy sources, including coal, natural gas and nuclear energy.” This statement is notable for explicitly naming coal, natural gas, and nuclear as DOE’s priority energy sources — a direct departure from the Biden-era DOE’s emphasis on clean energy transition. (DOE.gov official statement)

API statement on Trump Iran/oil pricing (POLITICO, March 2026): After leaving or in addition to her DOE role, a “Andrea Woods, a spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute” issued a statement that “the industry is focused on working with the” Trump administration on oil pricing policy, per a POLITICO article dated March 2026. The presence of an “Andrea Woods” as API spokesperson in March 2026 — while she was also listed as DOE Deputy Director — raises questions about the timeline of her DOE service that are not fully resolved in available public records. (POLITICO, March 2026)

Controversies {#controversies}

Oil industry pipeline to DOE communications: The most significant structural accountability concern with Woods’s appointment is the direct pipeline from the American Petroleum Institute to the Department of Energy’s communications shop. API is the primary oil and gas industry lobbying and communications organization; its communications work is explicitly designed to protect industry interests, minimize fossil fuel regulation, and counter climate policy. Woods moved from Deputy Director of Public Affairs at API to the equivalent role at DOE without publicly disclosed recusal or conflict-of-interest mitigation. This is not a violation of law on its face but represents a documented conflict-of-interest structure that accountability journalism organizations have identified as problematic in Trump administration personnel patterns. (ProPublica Trump Team Financial Disclosures)

Climate vocabulary management: Though Ben Dietderich was the attributed spokesperson in the climate word ban controversy of September 2025, Woods as Deputy Director / Acting Director of Public Affairs would have been in the chain of command for any communications guidance issued by the department. Her role in the internal guidance that prompted major news organizations to report on a climate vocabulary ban is not separately documented but is a reasonable area of inquiry given her position.

Possible concurrent API employment (unresolved): LegiStorm records appear to show Woods in a director role at API from January 2026, while she was still listed as DOE Deputy Director on the official DOE organizational chart. Whether she formally returned to API in January 2026 or whether these records reflect a different person or data error is unresolved in available public information. Journalists seeking accountability coverage should verify her current employment status with both agencies.

Overall Veracity Track Record {#track-record}

Overall rating: Insufficient record

Woods’s documented public statements are limited to official DOE releases; there is insufficient independent attributable content to conduct a meaningful veracity assessment. The EIA outlook statement is internally consistent but ideologically framed; it cannot be characterized as factually false but does represent selective framing that emphasizes administration priorities over comprehensive energy data.

The broader accountability concern is structural: the API-to-DOE pipeline and the documented history of both organizations messaging in ways that minimize climate science and fossil fuel harms.

Spokesperson Misinformation Assessment {#misinformation-assessment}

Designation: None

Advocacy vs. Misinformation determination: Woods’s documented in-role statements — such as the DOE response to the EIA Annual Energy Outlook — represent ideologically framed but not factually false advocacy for the administration’s “energy dominance” agenda; the profile documents no in-window statement carrying an institutional fact-check rating of false or misleading, and thus contains nothing sufficient to establish a pattern of knowing misinformation.

Comparative Baseline: Insufficient in-window fact-check record versus the cross-administration press-secretary reference class.

Framework note: The Spokesperson Misinformation Assessment evaluates the transition from advocacy to knowing misinformation, not one-sided spin. Vigorous advocacy for an administration’s agenda is protected message discipline, not misinformation.

Framework disclosure: This assessment applies a published analytical framework to documented, in-role public statements by a public official, filtered to their tenure window. All factual predicates are cited to institutional fact-checkers. This assessment is subject to update as new evidence emerges or prior evidence is corrected.

Social Media Accounts {#social-media}

Key Source Links {#sources}

Factual correction requests: If you believe information in this profile is incorrect, please contact factcheck@patriot.university with your name (optional), the specific claim, and any supporting documentation.

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