‘Lioness in spring’ coordinates environmental policy for Obama
April 5th, 2009 by cdunaganCarol Browner, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clinton administration, now finds herself somewhat out of the loop when it comes to government regulation. Instead, she is playing perhaps a more important and somewhat subtle role as the nation’s first “coordinator of energy and climate policy.”
In a revealing article titled “The Lioness in Spring,” Newsweek explains how Browner has become central to coordinating President Obama’s policies on energy, environment, transportation and business relations.
While President Clinton “mouthed the right words about the environment,” he didn’t achieve much because he was afraid of hurting the economy, says the article by Michael Hirsch in this week’s magazine.
“Obama is, by all accounts, a true believer in the idea that good environmental policy is to a large extent the future of the U.S. economy, which needs something of a pick-me-up these days,” Hirsch states. “Browner says a major source of America’s next great growth spurt will be ‘green jobs and green technologies.’”
Of course, not everyone is happy.
“There are, to be sure, some who complain they’re not yet part of the discussion,” Hirsch notes. “Industry lobbyists remain wary that Obama and Browner are still slighting traditional energy sources such as oil, gas and nuclear, favoring renewables such as solar and wind (the exception is clean coal, a big Obama focus).”
For a little more background, Time magazine wrote a nice summary about Browner in December before she took her new “czarina” post.
And here’s a link for you to bookmark for the next four years — a kind of scorecard of Obama’s players — compiled by The New York Times.
Tags: Carol Browner, Climate change, energy, Environmental Protection Agency
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