ConocoPhillips, Houston, (NYSE: COP) has named American Petroleum Institute president and chief executive officer Red Cavaney senior vice president for government and public affairs. Cavaney is retiring from the API after 10 years at the end of October.

Even with his retirement from the API approaching, Cavaney has continued to work as one of the nation’s top energy lobbyist this week by making appeals to Congress to adopt what he calls “a sound energy policy” as the drilling ban expires off the East and West coasts. The ban was allowed to expire Oct. 1, with the exception of the eastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida which is protected by a 2006 federal act.

At 65, Cavaney has had a long career in Washington.

Before taking the position at API, he was president and chief executive officer of the American Plastics Council for three year. His other association leadership experience includes a nearly 10-year stint as the president of the American Forest & Paper Association. He has also served on the senior White House staff of presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.

Before his service in D.C., he was in the Navy, serving three combat tours in Vietnam as a lieutenant before being honorably discharged.

Cavaney is a member of the board of directors of Buckeye Technologies Inc., Memphis, (NYSE: BKI) and the executive committee and board of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, among others.

“Our industry owes Red a great debt of gratitude,” Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of ExxonMobil Corp., Irving, Texas, (NYSE: XOM) and current API board chairman, said upon Cavaney’s retirement announcement earlier this year. “Red is one of the true pillars of Washington and has served with distinction as the leader for the oil and natural gas industry. Red has shaped API into an exceptionally strong association with a talented and high caliber staff. The API board extends its best wishes to Red in his retirement and new endeavors.” JAS