{"id":19259,"date":"2025-12-21T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/?p=19259"},"modified":"2025-12-21T23:23:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T06:23:32","slug":"ag-labrador-announces-new-chief-of-energy-and-natural-resources-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/ag-labrador-announces-new-chief-of-energy-and-natural-resources-division\/","title":{"rendered":"AG Labrador Announces New Chief of Energy and Natural Resources Division"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BOISE, ID \u2014 <\/strong>Attorney General Ra\u00fal Labrador announced the retirement of Scott Campbell as Chief Deputy Attorney General of the Energy and Natural Resources Division and the promotion of Joy Vega to lead the division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Campbell has served as Division Chief since January 2023. He brought to the Office of Attorney General his extensive experience with water law, natural resources, environmental litigation, and water quality issues. A practicing attorney in Idaho since 1978, Campbell spent five years in the Ada County Prosecutor\u2019s Office before entering private practice in 1984. Campbell was the partner in charge of the environmental law section of Elam & Burke and then Moffatt Thomas. In 2017, he started his own firm. His illustrious career includes being involved in the earliest stages of the Snake River Basin Adjudication, even attending the legislative committee hearings where the adjudication statutes were debated. A fourth-generation Idaho native, Campbell\u2019s great-grandfather established a trading post on the Oregon Trail in 1865 at present-day Mayfield, Idaho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScott proved invaluable to this team and the people of Idaho from day one,\u201d said Attorney General Labrador. \u201cFrom the outset, he took on the Biden administration and secured major legal victories relating to Waters of the United States (WOTUS), protecting Idaho\u2019s natural resources from federal encroachment. Beyond his skills in negotiations and in the courtroom, his advice and leadership have been invaluable to me personally as Attorney General. I\u2019ve relied on his counsel and judgment repeatedly. Scott\u2019s lifelong passion for Idaho\u2019s water and natural resources made this role the perfect capstone to an extraordinary career, and I\u2019m deeply grateful for everything he\u2019s given me and to this state.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joy Vega joined the Attorney General\u2019s Energy and Natural Resources Division in 2017, initially providing legal counsel to the State Board of Land Commissioners, the Idaho Department of Lands, and the Idaho Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in both litigation and transactional matters. She was promoted to Lead Deputy Attorney General in 2021 and transitioned her representation to the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation while leading a team of attorneys in the State\u2019s General Stream Adjudications and various federal litigation matters on behalf of Idaho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Vega graduated from Northern Arizona University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Sciences with an Emphasis in Public Policy and Administration. She obtained her Juris Doctorate with Distinction from the University of North Dakota School of Law. After working as a judicial law clerk in Minnesota\u2019s 9th Judicial District, Vega practiced civil litigation with Jones & Swartz PLLC for eight and a half years, concentrating on contract disputes, employment disputes, commercial litigation, consumer protection claims, insurance claims and disputes, and civil rights litigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJoy has done outstanding work in our Energy and Natural Resources Division and is the right person to lead it going forward,\u201d Labrador said. \u201cProtecting Idaho\u2019s sovereignty over its water and natural resources is essential to preserving our way of life. I have complete confidence in Joy\u2019s ability to defend Idaho\u2019s interests and provide the strong, principled leadership this division requires.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOISE, ID \u2014 Attorney General Ra\u00fal Labrador announced the retirement of Scott Campbell as Chief Deputy Attorney General of the Energy and Natural Resources Division and the promotion of Joy Vega to lead the division. Scott Campbell has served as Division Chief since January 2023. He brought to the Office of Attorney General his extensive experience with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":18420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[243],"tags":[824],"class_list":["post-19259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions-op-eds","tag-press-release","cat-243-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19260,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19259\/revisions\/19260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}