Carol M. Browner, the White House coordinator for energy and climate change policy, will leave the administration shortly, officials confirmed Monday night. Her departure signals at least a temporary slowing of the ambitious environmental goals of President Obama’s first two years in the face of new Republican strength in Congress.
Ms. Browner, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, was charged with directing the administration’s effort to enact comprehensive legislation to reduce emissions of climate-altering gases and moving the country away from a dependence on dirty-burning fossil fuels. That effort foundered in Congress last year, and Mr. Obama has acknowledged that no major climate change legislation is likely to pass in the next two years.
No decision has been made on whether she would be replaced or if the position would simply disappear, a White House official said.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Browner Leaves
Our chapter on bureaucracy and the administrative state includes a photo essay (p. 473) on Carol Browner, the president's assistant for energy and climate change. Her long career -- in business, government, and the nonprofit sector; on the state and federal levels; and in the legislative and executive branches -- illustrates multiple parts of the environmental issue network. The New York Times reports:
