White House Office of Public Engagement Director Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Monday she would be stepping down after serving within the Biden administration since June.

Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, described her tenure in the White House as an ‘extraordinary season.’

‘Term ended in January 2022,’ she wrote in a tweet. ‘I didn’t take a break, planning to work hard for 6 months and relax over the summer. @WhiteHouse called again in June and I said, ‘I’ll stay just thru midterms in November.’ Months later this extraordinary season soon ends. Thanks family and @POTUS.’

Bottoms opted not to run for re-election for Atlanta mayor in 2021. The Democrat was initially hired at CNN as a political commentator after her exit from the mayor’s office, but later announced she would serve the Biden Administration beginning in June 2022.

Bottoms revealed on Instagram that she joined the White House for what she believed to be a short-term assignment that ended up lasting longer.

‘I had a WHOLE plan for how life would go after my term ended as Mayor, none of which included joining the White House,’ she wrote on Monday. ‘After saying yes to what I thought would be a short term assignment, I was asked to stay much longer. It has been a privilege to work alongside @potus, @vp, and an extraordinary team in making a difference. I am grateful for the sacrifice my family has made and for the opportunity to represent all of who we are and all our ancestors believed we could be.’

President Biden said in a statement that Bottoms ‘kept equity at the heart of our agenda, and continues to serve as the connective tissue between our Administration and everyday Americans who may not have a voice to reach Washington otherwise.’

‘I have leaned on Keisha as a close advisor with exceptional instincts, and I am grateful to her for serving our nation with honor and integrity. I wish her the best as she returns home to Atlanta to be with her family,’ the president wrote.

Bottoms’ vacated position as White House Office of Public Engagement director will be filled by former Columbia, South Carolina, mayor Stephen Benjamin. He served as mayor from 2010 to 2021, as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors from 2018 to 2019 and as president of the African American Mayors Association from 2015 to 2016.

A senior Biden administration scientist authored an internal memo warning of the impacts offshore wind development may have on marine life months before the recent spate of whale deaths along the East Coast.

Sean Hayes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) chief of protected species, penned the memo in May 2022 and sent it to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) lead biologist Brian Hooker, also copying more than a dozen other scientists from the two agencies. The memo highlighted Hayes’ concerns about how offshore wind construction and surveying could disrupt the endangered Atlantic right whale.

‘The development of offshore wind poses risks to these species, which is magnified in southern New England waters due to species abundance and distribution,’ Hayes wrote in the letter dated May 13. ‘These risks occur at varying stages, including construction and development, and include increased noise, vessel traffic, habitat modifications, water withdrawals associated with certain substations.’

‘The focus of this memo is on operational effects, and as such, focuses on potential oceanographic impacts driving right whale prey distribution, but also acknowledges increased risks due to increased vessel traffic and noise,’ he continued. ‘However, unlike vessel traffic and noise, which can be mitigated to some extent, oceanographic impacts from installed and operating turbines cannot be mitigated for the 30-year lifespan of the project, unless they are decommissioned.’ 

Hayes added that offshore wind development may also impact the distribution, abundance and availability of typical right whale food by causing oceanographic changes. Such infrastructure may also increase entanglement risks posed to whales since fishing techniques and efforts would be impact by wind farms.

The revelation that administration officials were concerned about how offshore wind impacts whales comes amid an uptick in whale deaths along the Atlantic coast. At least 12 dead whales have beached in New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia since December.

Discoveries of the beached whales have sparked calls from mayors, lawmakers and conservation groups for the federal government and state governments to implement a moratorium on offshore wind development pending a full investigation into the increasing number of deaths. While there are just two existing operational wind farms off the East Coast, more than 10 others are in various stages of development.

The Biden administration announced in 2021 that it intended to approve a staggering 30 gigawatts of offshore wind to be developed by 2030 as part of its climate agenda.

‘We’ve got a very tight window to save these whales,’ David Stevenson, the president of the American Coalition for Ocean Protection (ACOP), told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘BOEM is trying to ignore the operational noise that could drive them into these vessel areas. So it’s a big, big, big disaster. This letter just verifies that it’s a huge problem.’

Stevenson, who founded ACOP to mount legal defenses in response to offshore wind development on behalf of local shoreline communities, added that large federal offshore wind leases indirectly cause whales to swim into shipping channels which are full of vessels. A large number of whale deaths each year are the result of vessel strikes.

‘If you look at the lease areas, they’ve all got this triangular shape,’ he continued. ‘The reason for that is they are sandwiched between major shipping channels. So, if you harass the whales out of the lease area — and BOEM says in every one of their draft environmental impact statements that this is going to be a major impact on the whales — they are going to be harassed if they leave that lease area.’ 

‘They’re going right into the shipping channels. Most whales die from vessel strikes, so you can’t move them out of a relatively safe area into the worst place they can possibly be.’

However, despite the May letter from Hayes and pleas from environmental groups, Biden administration officials have reiterated on multiple occasions that there isn’t sufficient evidence linking offshore wind to whale deaths and have noted there has been an unusual mortality event for the species stretching back years. 

On Jan. 18, BOEM and NOAA officials held a press briefing, reiterating there wasn’t evidence offshore wind development was harmful and last week, the federal Marine Mammal Commission stated in a report that ‘despite several reports in the media, there is no evidence to link these strandings to offshore wind energy development.’

‘The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management discussed with NOAA Fisheries that additional information was required to evaluate ‘conservation buffer zones’ in some wind energy areas for the purposes of North Atlantic right whale protection,’ NOAA spokesperson Lauren Gaches told Fox News Digital in an email. 

‘This advice was compiled by NOAA Fisheries experts and delivered in a letter dated May 13, 2022. Since then, NOAA Fisheries and BOEM have released a joint draft strategy to protect and promote the recovery of North Atlantic right whales while responsibly developing offshore wind energy,’ Gaches added. ‘The points raised in the letter are described in the joint strategy.’

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Monday night that she was ‘attacked’ by an ‘insane woman’ at a restaurant and yelled at by the woman’s son over her political stances.

The congresswoman claims the incident was sparked by a difference of political opinions and that the mother-son duo had ‘no respect’ for opposing viewpoints.

‘They had no respect for the restaurant or the staff or the other people dining or people like me who simply have different political views,’ Greene wrote in a tweet. ‘They are self righteous, insane, and completely out of control.’

Greene said she was at a table working with staffers and did not even notice the mother and son until they ‘turned into demons.’

‘I was sitting at my table, working with my staff, and never even noticed these people until they turned into demons,’ she explained. ‘People used to respect others even if they had different views. But not anymore. Our country is gone.’

The Republican firebrand has previously been subject to threats, as well.

Federal prosecutors announced earlier this month that a New York man had pleaded guilty to making threatening phone calls to Greene’s office in Washington, D.C.

Joseph F. Morelli, 51, admitted to leaving several voicemail messages in March 2022 that targeted Greene.

‘I’m gonna have to take your life into my own hands … I’m gonna hurt you. Physically, I’m gonna harm you,’ Morelli said in one of the messages.

Greene’s office did not immediately respond to FOX News Digital about Monday’s alleged attack.

Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., sounded the alarm Monday on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) work with a Chinese-connected organization pushing bans on gas stoves.

Huizenga — the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee’s oversight subcommittee — wrote ‘with deep concerns’ to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, noting that the Biden administration has granted ‘elevated access’ to the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) since taking office. The group has spearheaded a push to ban gas stoves and has demonstrated significant ties to the Chinese government.

‘From the start, the Biden Administration has not been honest with the American people about its desire to ban gas stoves. That is why I introduced the STOVE Act to stop any potential ban,’ Huizenga told Fox News Digital.

‘Now as we learn more, I remain deeply concerned that the Biden Administration has granted elevated access to an entity with Chinese ties in pursuit of a radical energy agenda that will raise costs on American families and small businesses,’ he continued. ‘These actions cannot go unchecked and the American people deserve honest answers.’

In June 2021, Granholm privately met with former RMI CEO Jules Kortenhorst, Fox News Digital previously reported. Then, in March 2022, White House climate czar Ali Zaidi hosted three RMI leaders including Kortenhorst for a meeting in the West Wing of the White House, visitor logs showed.

Over the past two years, the federal government has awarded RMI millions of dollars in federal funding for various green energy projects. In March 2022, the same month as the meeting with Zaidi, the DOE awarded RMI with a $4.4 million grant to demonstrate ‘an integrated retrofit package of envelope panels, a heat pump pod and innovative financing’ in a Massachusetts building.

‘Given China’s active undermining of our nation’s energy independence, RMI’s blatant longtime connections to the Chinese government should be alarming to any member of the Cabinet,’ Huizenga wrote in his letter to Granholm. ‘Their ties are no secret.’

RMI is a member of the China Clean Transportation Partnership, a green group connected to the Chinese government, and its only office outside the U.S. is located in Beijing, China’s capital city. And RMI board member Wei Ding previously served as the chairman of the China International Capital Corporation, a bank partially owned by the Chinese government.

The group also collaborated with the Chinese state agency National Development and Reform Commission to study net-zero pathways for the nation and is a member of the China Clean Transportation Partnership, a green group with significant ties to the Chinese government.

Overall, the Colorado-based organization has largely argued in favor of economy-wide electrification to combat climate change. As part of the effort, the group argues against gas stove usage, stating on its website that burning gas in buildings ‘is not only a threat to climate action but also to human health.’

RMI recently made headlines after it funded a study that highlighted public health dangers posed by gas stove usage. The study was cited in a Bloomberg article in early January that included comments from a Consumer Product Safety Commission member who told the outlet a gas stove ban was ‘on the table.’

Granholm posted about the study on social media, saying ‘we can and must FIX this.’

Following widespread criticism of plans to restrict gas stove usage, the White House said it didn’t support a ban on the appliance and Granholm called a ban ‘ridiculous.’ 

However, several Republican lawmakers, in addition to Huizenga, have expressed concerns about how the administration has consulted with RMI on multiple occasions. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said ‘Biden’s people are using China-backed talking points to take away gas stoves’ and Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas added that ‘China’s fingerprints seem to be on everything, including our energy policy.’

‘Bureaucratic attempts to ban gas stoves in the United States would present an obvious and unreasonable burden on American families and businesses,’ Huizenga concluded in his letter to Granholm. ‘Considering RMI’s ties to China, agencies should be more cautious in investigating the origin of any related idea that would impose costs on American families.’

In January, he and Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., introduced the Stop Trying to Obsessively Vilify Energy Act which would prohibit federal agencies from banning gas stoves or other gas-powered appliances.

But the DOE said Granholm’s June 2021 meeting with RMI was about infrastructure and the White House said Zaidi’s meeting was about jobs.

‘This meeting was about adding to President Biden’s historic record of bringing more manufacturing jobs back to America and lowering energy costs, not a debunked conspiracy theory,’ White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan told Fox News Digital on Feb. 11. 

‘While the cynics try to serve up a story about Zaidi without sizzle or steak, he is working overtime to deliver substance — good jobs, cost savings, and a stronger American energy sector than ever before.’

The DOE didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Biden may be close to issuing the first veto of his presidency as Congress is expected to pass a resolution disapproving of a Department of Labor (DOL) rule allowing retirement plan managers to factor environment, social and governance (ESG) into their investment decisions.

Lawmakers have critcized the DOL rule, saying it ‘politicizes’ and ‘jeopardizes’ the retirement savings of more than 152 million Americans. Last month, Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., introduced the bipartisan disapproval resolution, which has the backing of all GOP senators, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and more than 100 organizations.

Passage will only require a simple majority Senate vote to pass and be sent to Biden’s desk. If Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is still out of the office due to being treated for clinical depression, that would let supporters pass it by at least a 50-49 vote, or a larger margin if other Democrats support it.

A GOP aide told Fox News Digital the bill will be able to pass the House and is confident there are enough votes to pass it in the Senate, even if Fetterman votes against it.

‘After a month of President Biden accusing Republicans of partisanship and trying to hurt Americans’ retirements, the next thing that comes to his desk is a bipartisan rebuke of his policy that’s hurting Americans’ retirement savings to fund his political agenda,’ said the aide.

The House is expected to vote on Wednesday, when it is easily expected to be approved, given the GOP majority. The Senate vote is expected to follow later Wednesday or on Thursday.

The White House warned Monday that Biden ‘will veto’ the bill if it is sent to his desk.

‘The President will continue to deliver for America’s workers. If the President were presented with H.J. Res. 30, he would veto it,’ said the White House in a Statement of Administration Policy defending the use of ESG factors in fiduciary decisions.

‘The rule reflects what successful marketplace investors already know – there is an extensive body of evidence that environmental, social, and governance factors can have material impacts on certain markets, industries, and companies,’ the White House argued while slamming the previous Trump administration for ‘chilling’ ESG investments.

The resolution of disapproval was proposed under the Congressional Review Act. Under that law, resolutions can be forced onto the agenda for a floor vote even if Senate Democrats oppose it. That mechanism is what is expected to allow Senate passage after GOP leaders pass it in the House.

Once it passes, Biden will have a chance to veto it, and the ESG vote could be Biden’s first time to use his veto pen. If Biden does veto it, Congress would have to approve the resolution again in a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers, a much tougher hurdle.

ESG standards are increasingly used by investors and asset managers to guide their decision-making.

The environmental factors considered often include how a corporation contributes to pollution or climate change. Social criteria examines a company’s relationship with employees, ethics, engagement with nonprofits and stake in the community. Governance considers the corporation’s leadership, overall ethics and standards, and it includes the makeup of the board of directors and the recipients of their donations.