Oral history interview with Carol M. Browner, 2020
Abstract
Carol Browner reflects on her career in environmental policy and regulation, and discusses her contributions to the environmental policies of the Clinton and Obama presidential administrations. Browner describes the hostility to federal regulation and the politicization of climate science that followed the 1994 midterm elections, and her response to that opposition as administrator of the Environme ntal Protection Agency (EPA). Browner also outlines her service as director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy from 2009 to 2011, focusing on the office's role as a facilitator of collaboration between relevant offices and agencies across government. She also discusses her involvement in the important regulatory and legislative initiatives of the period, including support for renewable energy companies in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Waxman-Markey bill (American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009), the introduction of CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) Standards, and the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. Browner outlines the relationship between legislation and federal and state regulatory agencies, emphasizing the importance of regulatory autonomy for agencies with scientific and technical expertise in particular domains. Also discussed are the coordination of disaster response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the history and effects of the Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts v. EPA (2007)
Presidents--United States; Climatic changes--United States; Environmental policy--United States; Automobiles--Fuel consumption--United States; BP Deepwater Horizon Explosion and Oil Spill, 2010; Browner, Carol M. (Carol Martha), 1955-; Obama, Barack; United States. Environmental Protection Agency; United States; Conference of the Parties (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) Copenhagen, Denmark) 2009 : (15th; American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2020
Physical Description
138 pages
Note (Biographical)
Carol Browner served as assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Policy in the Obama administration. Early in her career she held two positions with the Florida state government where she was involved wit h oversight of land acquisition and later rewriting laws to develop a more public process for vetting which lands could be bought by the government. In Washington, D.C., she worked with Citizen Action to advocate for the reauthorization of the Environmental Protection Agency Superfund program. After her NGO work, Browner worked as a legislative assistant for Senators Lawton Chiles and Al Gore, before returning to Florida to head the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. As Florida's environment secretary, she was involved in implementing the law she had revised and running the land acquisition program. She then served as the longest-serving administrator in the history of the EPA, staying through both terms of the Clinton presidency
Note
Interviewed by Dov Weinryb Grohsgal on July 21 and 30, 2020. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Carol M. Browner, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2022