A New President Takes Command

• Author: Margaret Kriz
• Position: Environment and energy writer for the National Journal
• Pages: 10-10

Page 10 ❧ THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM Copyright © 2009, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, March/April 2009

A New President

Takes Command

On January 26, President Obama

began living up to his promise

to act quickly on environmental is-

sues by ordering EPA to reconsider a

Bush-era decision blocking California

and 13 other states from regulating

car tailpipe emissions linked to glob-

al warming. He also instructed the

Transportation Department to require

automakers to produce car f‌leets that

average 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

In announcing his decisions,

Obama argued that radical changes

are needed in American energy policy.

“It falls on us,” he said, “to choose

whether to risk the peril that comes

with our current course or to seize the

promise of energy independence. And

for the sake of our security, our econo-

my, and our planet, we must have the

courage and commitment to change.”

en the president handed his

signed executive orders to his newly

minted EPA administrator, Lisa Jack-

son, and transportation secretary, Ray

LaHood. But sitting in the audience,

out of the spotlight, was the woman

who will be developing and coordi-

nating the administration’s bold new

environmental agenda: White House

energy and climate change adviser

Carol Browner.

Browner, 53, was EPA administra-

tor during the Clinton administration

and earned a reputation for standing

her ground on tough issues. “Carol

was very smart and driven in a way

that you expect active, aggressive

Cabinet secretaries to be,” says Eric

Schaef‌fer, executive director of the

Environmental Integrity Project. A

former director of EPA’s of‌f‌ice of civil

enforcement, Schaef‌fer adds, “She

was somebody who could go over to

the White House and argue and push

and win. e agency hasn’t had that in

eight years.”

Now she is at the center of Obama’s

energy and climate policy. Browner

won’t “displace the important role

that Cabinet secretaries play,” says for-

mer White House Chief of Staf‌f John

Podesta, who led Obama’s transition

team. “But when you have problems

that really cut across a swath of agen-

cies, it’s very important to have a

strong central place within the White

House where people can work on the

same strategy and [make sure] that ac-

tions are keyed up and accountability

exists. at has proven to be an ef‌fec-

tive way of doing business in the fed-

eral government on security policy, on

economic policy. And

now we’ll see it on en-

vironmental policy.”

By bringing Brow-

ner into his inner

circle and giving

her a huge portfo-

lio, Obama clearly

touched a nerve with

some Republicans, conservative pun-

dits, and business lobbyists. Critics

accused her of ignoring the cost of en-

vironmental mandates at EPA. “She

was a very polarizing f‌igure,” says Max

Schulz, senior fellow at the Manhat-

tan Institute. Conservative Senator

James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) recently

described Browner as “a proud liberal

who has long advocated an environ-

mentalist agenda that would drive

up energy costs on families and put

thousands of Americans out of jobs.”

Browner has been equally critical of

President Bush’s stewardship of the

air, land, and waterways, calling the

Texas oilman’s tenure “the worst envi-

ronmental administration ever.”

Browner’s new duties as energy

czar also worry some company execu-

tives who tangled with her at the EPA.

Nervous that Browner will try to ad-

vance a tree-hugging, leftist agenda,

industry lobbyists are counting on the

f‌inancial gurus in the Obama White

House to balance her point of view.

e members of Obama’s economic

team “have a history of being very

thoughtful and focused on the eco-

nomic implications of a regulatory

action,” says Cal Dooley, president

and CEO of the American Chemis-

try Council. “ey understand the

impact that regulations could have on

U.S. manufacturers being competitive

in the international marketplace.”

Jack Gerard, president and CEO

of the American Petroleum Institute,

notes that Obama, not Browner, will

be the ultimate arbiter of environmen-

tal policy. “And, to date, he’s expressed

a willingness and anxiousness to stay

in the middle, to be the president of

all of the country, not segments of the

country,” Gerard says. “Our hope is

that since they’ve designated [Brown-

er] in this role of czar,

that it will allow us to

integrate the energy

and environment is-

sues together, as they

should be.”

However, if Brow-

ner ends up wrestling

with White House

economic appointees over environmen-

tal issues, Gerard says, “then it will fur-

ther divide the decisionmaking process

and leave us out there waiting to f‌igure

out what direction they’re going to go.

So I think the verdict is still out.”

But Podesta advises industry to ex-

pect dramatic change — and not sim-

ply because of Carol Browner’s new

status: “If people want to continue in

practices that were more appropriate

in the 1950s than today, then I think

that they’re going to have to under-

stand that Obama campaigned on a

promise of energy transformation.

And he intends to fulf‌ill it.”

By Margaret Kriz

Margaret Kriz is the environment and energy

writer for the N ational Journal. She can b e

reached at mkriz@nationaljournal.com.

T F B

“Obama campaigned

on a promise of energy

transformation. And he

intends to fulll it.”