Energy Czar: Carol M. Browner
Current Position: White House energy czar (since January 2009)
Why She Matters
Browner is another Clinton administration veteran who will serve in a key post in President Barack Obama's White House. She will serve in the newly created role of energy czar. In that job, she will work as a kind of environmental traffic cop, coordinating the administration’s climate change, energy and environmental policy.
Browner is a former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator and filled that role for the whole of the Clinton administration, making her the longest-serving EPA administrator in history. She used the post as a bulwark against what Democrats viewed as an assault on environmental regulations by Congressional Republicans.
Browner served as an adviser to Obama's transition team, and led that team’s Energy and Environment Policy Working Group. As the working group head, Browner was charged with drafting the early policies and priorities for the Obama administration. Obama's policies will likely depart radically from those of the Bush administration, which she described as the "worst environmental administration ever."Wald, Matthew L., "Carol M. Browner," New York Times, Nov. 26, 2008(1)Wald, Matthew L., "Carol M. Browner," New York Times, Nov. 26, 2008
At a Glance
Current Position: Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change (since Jan. 2009)
Career History: Founder and principal, The Albright Group LLC and Albright Capital Management (since 2001); Administrator, United States Environmental Protection Agency (1993 to 2000);
Florida Secretary of the Environment (1991 to 1993)
Birthday: Dec. 16, 1955
Hometown: Miami, Fla.
Alma Mater: B.A., University of Florida, 1977; J.D., University of Florida, 1979
Spouse: ex-Rep. Tom J. Downey (D-N.Y.)
Office: N/A
Email N/A
Path to Power
A Florida native, Browner was born in 1955 to parents who were professors at Miami-Dade Community College. She graduated from the University of Florida in 1977 and earned her J.D. from the school in 1979.
In 1980, she served as the general counsel for the Florida House of Representatives Government Operations Committee before going to work for the grassroots consumer advocacy group Citizen Action in Washington, D.C.
From 1986 to 1988, Browner was the chief legislative aide on environmental issues to then-Sen. Lawton Chiles (D-Fla.), who later served as Florida's governor. Following that, she was the legislative director for then-Sen. Al Gore (D-Tenn.) until 1991, when she was appointed as the Florida secretary of the environment. She served in that capacity from 1991 to 1993, where among her biggest wins was securing a deal with Walt Disney World in which the corporation was given permission to develop more than 400 acres of wetlands, in exchange for buying and preserving an area of land nearly twenty times that size for the bald eagle and other wildlife.
At the age of 37, President Bill Clinton appointed Browner as EPA administrator, a job in which she served from 1993 to 2001.
"I want my son to be able to grow up and enjoy the natural wonders of the United States in the same way that I have," she said at her swearing-in ceremony as EPA Administrator in January 1993. "I believe that we will now be able to make the investment in our economy that we so desperately need, yet preserve the air, land, and water.""Carol M. Browner's Official Biography," EPA Web site(2)"Carol M. Browner's Official Biography," EPA Web site
After her stint at the EPA, Browner founded and continues to serve as a principal of The Albright Group LLC, a global strategy firm led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She's also a principal of Albright Capital Management, an investment advisory firm that concentrates on emerging markets.
She is active in non-profit, progressive and environmental groups, serving as the chair of the board of the National Audubon Society and a member of the board of directors of the Center for American Progress, the Alliance for Climate Protection and the League of Conservation Voters. She is also on the board of APX, a company that provides technology infrastructure for environmental and energy markets.The Issues
As EPA administrator, Browner made her mark by beating back attempts by Congressional Republicans to weaken the Clean Water Act and virtually every other environmental law on the books. With a divided government in the mid-1990s (a Democratic president and a GOP-led Congress), Republicans sought to exert power by picking apart federal rules through legislation – including repealing portions of the Clean Air Act, making moves to increase logging on public lands and scaling back rules on pesticides in foods.
Public Health
Browner also made some notable progress in her eight years at the agency in the public health realm. Two of the most influential acts during her time at the agency were updating federal standards for particulate matter and ozone (perhaps better-known as "soot" and "smog"). In 1994, she oversaw the expansion of the Toxic Release Inventory, nearly doubling the number of chemicals whose emission must be reported to the public.
She also played a key role in enacting rules to strengthen the Safe Drinking Water Act, which overhauled in 1996 public water system standards,"EPA press release, Statement by Carol Browner on Safe Drinking Water Act," Aug. 2, 1996(3)"EPA press release, Statement by Carol Browner on Safe Drinking Water Act," Aug. 2, 1996 and in 1997 the Food Quality Protection Act."EPA press release, EPA Announces Comprehensive Plans for Protecting Food Safety, Regulating Pesticides under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act," March 18, 2007(4)"EPA press release, EPA Announces Comprehensive Plans for Protecting Food Safety, Regulating Pesticides under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act," March 18, 2007 In both cases, she worked to pass legislation with Congressional Republicans.
In 1999, Browner led the charge to ban two pesticides that studies found to disrupt brain development in children. But Environmentalists criticized her for not going far enough in outlawing some of the most dangerous chemicals and accused her of bowing to industry pressure."Protecting the Apples of Our Eye," Daily Grist(5)"Protecting the Apples of Our Eye," Daily Grist
In 1997, Browner created an Office of Children's Health Protection at EPA in order to help implement Clinton's executive order on Children's Environmental Health. The goal of the office was "to make the protection of children's health a fundamental goal of public health and environmental protection in the United States."EPA Web site(6)EPA Web site The new office incorporated a Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, a panel of experts in the field that makes policy recommendations to the administration. The office in its first years focused on issues like asthma rates and exposure to toxic chemicals like lead-based paint.
Superfund
Browner led efforts to clean up brownfields, or land that has been contaminated with harmful chemicals. She also tried to rally support for legislative measures to reform the Superfund program, which makes polluting industries pay for clean-up work at toxic waste sites.EPA Web site(6)EPA Web site Though the Clinton administration wasn't able to get those measures through Congress, Browner did help accelerate the pace of Superfund cleanups, completing 400 in the administration's first term.
Air Pollution
One of Browner's last acts as EPA administrator was to issue new air pollution control rules for diesel fuels, requiring that the sulfur content of diesel fuel be reduced from 500 parts per million to 15 parts per million – a 97 percent decline. The Clinton administration enacted the law in 2000, though it wasn't fully phased in until 2006. The new rule also called for stronger emissions limits on diesel engines.
Her 1999 official biography notes that Browner "is guided by the philosophy that safeguarding the environment means protecting where we live and how we live" but also by the idea that "the environment and the economy go hand in hand.""Carol M. Browner's Official Biography," EPA Web site
(7)"Carol M. Browner's Official Biography," EPA Web site
The Network
Browner was an early supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) bid for the Democratic nomination, but she went on to enthusiastically back Obama once Clinton left the race. During the general election, Browner appeared at several events in swing states organized by the League of Conservation Voters to rally support for his candidacy.
Browner also served as a top legislative aide to former Vice President Al Gore and worked with former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at The Albright Group, a consulting firm, and Albright Capital Management, which focuses on investment in emerging markets.
She is married to former Rep. Tom Downey Jr. (D-N.Y.).
Footnotes
1.Wald, Matthew L., "Carol M. Browner," New York Times, Nov. 26, 2008
2."Carol M. Browner's Official Biography," EPA Web site
3."EPA press release, Statement by Carol Browner on Safe Drinking Water Act," Aug. 2, 1996
4."EPA press release, EPA Announces Comprehensive Plans for Protecting Food Safety, Regulating Pesticides under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act," March 18, 2007
5."Protecting the Apples of Our Eye," Daily Grist
6.EPA Web site
7."Carol M. Browner's Official Biography," EPA Web site
******************************************************************
The Washington Times
Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change.
By Thursday, Mrs. Browner's name and biography had been removed from Socialist International's Web page, though a photo of her speaking June 30 to the group's congress in Greece was still available.
Socialist International, an umbrella group for many of the world's social democratic political parties such as Britain's Labor Party, says it supports socialism and is harshly critical of U.S. policies.
The group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, the organization's action arm on climate change, says the developed world must reduce consumption and commit to binding and punitive limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr. Obama, who has said action on climate change would be a priority in his administration, tapped Mrs. Browner last month to fill a new position as White House coordinator of climate and energy policies. The appointment does not need Senate confirmation.
Mr. Obama's transition team said Mrs. Browner's membership in the organization is not a problem and that it brings experience in U.S. policymaking to her new role. "The Commission for a Sustainable World Society includes world leaders from a variety of political parties, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who succeeded Tony Blair, in serving as vice president of the convening organization," Obama transition spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
"Carol Browner was chosen to help the president-elect coordinate energy and climate policy because she understands that our efforts to create jobs, achieve energy security and combat climate change demand integration among different agencies; cooperation between federal, state and local governments; and partnership with the private sector," Mr. Shapiro said in an e-mail.
Mrs. Browner ran the Environmental Protection Agency under President Clinton. Until she was tapped for the Obama administration, she was on the board of directors for the National Audubon Society, the League of Conservation Voters, the Center for American Progress and former Vice President Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection.
Her name has been removed from the Gore organization's Web site list of directors, and the Audubon Society issued a press release about her departure from that organization.
Republicans said Mrs. Browner's work with Socialist International raises questions.
"Does she agree with the group's positions on global governance - that the United States should abdicate its international leadership to international organizations? Does she support its position that the international community should be the ultimate arbiter of climate change policy?" said Antonia Ferrier, a spokeswoman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.
"These are questions that merit answers - especially when you consider this group's deep skepticism about America's ability to be a force for positive change in the world," she said. An aide on the Obama team said its information shows that Mrs. Browner resigned from the organization in June 2008. The aide, who asked not to be named because he was discussing internal matters, said the transition team was aware she had been a member of the group when she was vetted.
The Socialist International Web site didn't have a copy of her June 30 speech, but the agenda for the meeting had her scheduled to speak as part of a panel on "How do we strengthen the multilateral architecture for a sustainable future?"
Other panel participants were Sergey Mironov, speaker of the Russian legislature's upper chamber and a close ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin; Zhang Zhijun, vice minister of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee; and Jesus Caldera, a former Minister of Employment and Social Affairs of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.
A woman answering the phone at Socialist International's headquarters in London said all officers were traveling. Nobody from the organization returned a message left Friday.
Socialist International bills itself as the world body of democratic socialist movements. It includes members ranging from Israel's Labor Party and France's Socialist Party to Angola's MPLA, which won the 1970s Angolan civil war with the aid of Soviet arms and Cuban troops.
The organization distinguishes itself from violent or revolutionary communist parties. However, some such groups, including the Chinese Communist Party, have been invited to its events as guest organizations.
The Democratic Socialists of America, not the Democratic Party, is listed as the group's U.S. representative. But Mrs. Browner was listed as an individual member of Socialist International, but not a member of the DSA.
While agreeing with Mr. Obama on the need for action to address climate change, the organization wants more draconian policies than the president-elect's preferred solution.
During the presidential campaign, Mr. Obama called for a cap-and-trade system to control carbon emissions. He argued that such a system is efficient and lets the free market determine where it's easiest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Socialist International says such "flexible mechanisms" do not clamp down hard enough on polluters.
The organization often takes a decidedly critical view of the U.S.
At this summer's meeting, the group issued a statement on economics that blasted the "neo-liberal market ideology and the unilateralist, U.S.-dominated approach in the global economic system," and attacked the U.S. for dominating international financial institutions.
At its meeting earlier in 2008 in Santiago, Chile, Socialist International endorsed "global governance" as the solution to the world's problems of peace and climate change.
At a July meeting in St. Petersburg, the commission said developed countries "should think of decreasing current consumption levels" - which would mean shrinking their economies - in order to help the environment.
Socialist International regularly blasts the construction of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The fence was approved by both houses of Congress, including with Mr. Obama's vote in the Senate.
Socialist International was congratulatory when Mr. Obama won the election, issuing a statement noting that "the sky may seem a bit brighter today" but warning still that "there are enormous global challenges that must be addressed effectively and without delay."
Source:http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/12/obama-climate-czar-...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/12/obama-climate-czar-...
Why She Matters
Browner is another Clinton administration veteran who will serve in a key post in President Barack Obama's White House. She will serve in the newly created role of energy czar. In that job, she will work as a kind of environmental traffic cop, coordinating the administration’s climate change, energy and environmental policy.
Browner is a former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator and filled that role for the whole of the Clinton administration, making her the longest-serving EPA administrator in history. She used the post as a bulwark against what Democrats viewed as an assault on environmental regulations by Congressional Republicans.
Browner served as an adviser to Obama's transition team, and led that team’s Energy and Environment Policy Working Group. As the working group head, Browner was charged with drafting the early policies and priorities for the Obama administration. Obama's policies will likely depart radically from those of the Bush administration, which she described as the "worst environmental administration ever."Wald, Matthew L., "Carol M. Browner," New York Times, Nov. 26, 2008(1)Wald, Matthew L., "Carol M. Browner," New York Times, Nov. 26, 2008
At a Glance
Current Position: Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change (since Jan. 2009)
Career History: Founder and principal, The Albright Group LLC and Albright Capital Management (since 2001); Administrator, United States Environmental Protection Agency (1993 to 2000);
Florida Secretary of the Environment (1991 to 1993)
Birthday: Dec. 16, 1955
Hometown: Miami, Fla.
Alma Mater: B.A., University of Florida, 1977; J.D., University of Florida, 1979
Spouse: ex-Rep. Tom J. Downey (D-N.Y.)
Office: N/A
Email N/A
Path to Power
A Florida native, Browner was born in 1955 to parents who were professors at Miami-Dade Community College. She graduated from the University of Florida in 1977 and earned her J.D. from the school in 1979.
In 1980, she served as the general counsel for the Florida House of Representatives Government Operations Committee before going to work for the grassroots consumer advocacy group Citizen Action in Washington, D.C.
From 1986 to 1988, Browner was the chief legislative aide on environmental issues to then-Sen. Lawton Chiles (D-Fla.), who later served as Florida's governor. Following that, she was the legislative director for then-Sen. Al Gore (D-Tenn.) until 1991, when she was appointed as the Florida secretary of the environment. She served in that capacity from 1991 to 1993, where among her biggest wins was securing a deal with Walt Disney World in which the corporation was given permission to develop more than 400 acres of wetlands, in exchange for buying and preserving an area of land nearly twenty times that size for the bald eagle and other wildlife.
At the age of 37, President Bill Clinton appointed Browner as EPA administrator, a job in which she served from 1993 to 2001.
"I want my son to be able to grow up and enjoy the natural wonders of the United States in the same way that I have," she said at her swearing-in ceremony as EPA Administrator in January 1993. "I believe that we will now be able to make the investment in our economy that we so desperately need, yet preserve the air, land, and water.""Carol M. Browner's Official Biography," EPA Web site(2)"Carol M. Browner's Official Biography," EPA Web site
After her stint at the EPA, Browner founded and continues to serve as a principal of The Albright Group LLC, a global strategy firm led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She's also a principal of Albright Capital Management, an investment advisory firm that concentrates on emerging markets.
She is active in non-profit, progressive and environmental groups, serving as the chair of the board of the National Audubon Society and a member of the board of directors of the Center for American Progress, the Alliance for Climate Protection and the League of Conservation Voters. She is also on the board of APX, a company that provides technology infrastructure for environmental and energy markets.The Issues
As EPA administrator, Browner made her mark by beating back attempts by Congressional Republicans to weaken the Clean Water Act and virtually every other environmental law on the books. With a divided government in the mid-1990s (a Democratic president and a GOP-led Congress), Republicans sought to exert power by picking apart federal rules through legislation – including repealing portions of the Clean Air Act, making moves to increase logging on public lands and scaling back rules on pesticides in foods.
Public Health
Browner also made some notable progress in her eight years at the agency in the public health realm. Two of the most influential acts during her time at the agency were updating federal standards for particulate matter and ozone (perhaps better-known as "soot" and "smog"). In 1994, she oversaw the expansion of the Toxic Release Inventory, nearly doubling the number of chemicals whose emission must be reported to the public.
She also played a key role in enacting rules to strengthen the Safe Drinking Water Act, which overhauled in 1996 public water system standards,"EPA press release, Statement by Carol Browner on Safe Drinking Water Act," Aug. 2, 1996(3)"EPA press release, Statement by Carol Browner on Safe Drinking Water Act," Aug. 2, 1996 and in 1997 the Food Quality Protection Act."EPA press release, EPA Announces Comprehensive Plans for Protecting Food Safety, Regulating Pesticides under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act," March 18, 2007(4)"EPA press release, EPA Announces Comprehensive Plans for Protecting Food Safety, Regulating Pesticides under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act," March 18, 2007 In both cases, she worked to pass legislation with Congressional Republicans.
In 1999, Browner led the charge to ban two pesticides that studies found to disrupt brain development in children. But Environmentalists criticized her for not going far enough in outlawing some of the most dangerous chemicals and accused her of bowing to industry pressure."Protecting the Apples of Our Eye," Daily Grist(5)"Protecting the Apples of Our Eye," Daily Grist
In 1997, Browner created an Office of Children's Health Protection at EPA in order to help implement Clinton's executive order on Children's Environmental Health. The goal of the office was "to make the protection of children's health a fundamental goal of public health and environmental protection in the United States."EPA Web site(6)EPA Web site The new office incorporated a Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, a panel of experts in the field that makes policy recommendations to the administration. The office in its first years focused on issues like asthma rates and exposure to toxic chemicals like lead-based paint.
Superfund
Browner led efforts to clean up brownfields, or land that has been contaminated with harmful chemicals. She also tried to rally support for legislative measures to reform the Superfund program, which makes polluting industries pay for clean-up work at toxic waste sites.EPA Web site(6)EPA Web site Though the Clinton administration wasn't able to get those measures through Congress, Browner did help accelerate the pace of Superfund cleanups, completing 400 in the administration's first term.
Air Pollution
One of Browner's last acts as EPA administrator was to issue new air pollution control rules for diesel fuels, requiring that the sulfur content of diesel fuel be reduced from 500 parts per million to 15 parts per million – a 97 percent decline. The Clinton administration enacted the law in 2000, though it wasn't fully phased in until 2006. The new rule also called for stronger emissions limits on diesel engines.
Her 1999 official biography notes that Browner "is guided by the philosophy that safeguarding the environment means protecting where we live and how we live" but also by the idea that "the environment and the economy go hand in hand.""Carol M. Browner's Official Biography," EPA Web site
(7)"Carol M. Browner's Official Biography," EPA Web site
The Network
Browner was an early supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) bid for the Democratic nomination, but she went on to enthusiastically back Obama once Clinton left the race. During the general election, Browner appeared at several events in swing states organized by the League of Conservation Voters to rally support for his candidacy.
Browner also served as a top legislative aide to former Vice President Al Gore and worked with former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at The Albright Group, a consulting firm, and Albright Capital Management, which focuses on investment in emerging markets.
She is married to former Rep. Tom Downey Jr. (D-N.Y.).
Footnotes
1.Wald, Matthew L., "Carol M. Browner," New York Times, Nov. 26, 2008
2."Carol M. Browner's Official Biography," EPA Web site
3."EPA press release, Statement by Carol Browner on Safe Drinking Water Act," Aug. 2, 1996
4."EPA press release, EPA Announces Comprehensive Plans for Protecting Food Safety, Regulating Pesticides under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act," March 18, 2007
5."Protecting the Apples of Our Eye," Daily Grist
6.EPA Web site
7."Carol M. Browner's Official Biography," EPA Web site
******************************************************************
The Washington Times
Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change.
By Thursday, Mrs. Browner's name and biography had been removed from Socialist International's Web page, though a photo of her speaking June 30 to the group's congress in Greece was still available.
Socialist International, an umbrella group for many of the world's social democratic political parties such as Britain's Labor Party, says it supports socialism and is harshly critical of U.S. policies.
The group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, the organization's action arm on climate change, says the developed world must reduce consumption and commit to binding and punitive limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr. Obama, who has said action on climate change would be a priority in his administration, tapped Mrs. Browner last month to fill a new position as White House coordinator of climate and energy policies. The appointment does not need Senate confirmation.
Mr. Obama's transition team said Mrs. Browner's membership in the organization is not a problem and that it brings experience in U.S. policymaking to her new role. "The Commission for a Sustainable World Society includes world leaders from a variety of political parties, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who succeeded Tony Blair, in serving as vice president of the convening organization," Obama transition spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
"Carol Browner was chosen to help the president-elect coordinate energy and climate policy because she understands that our efforts to create jobs, achieve energy security and combat climate change demand integration among different agencies; cooperation between federal, state and local governments; and partnership with the private sector," Mr. Shapiro said in an e-mail.
Mrs. Browner ran the Environmental Protection Agency under President Clinton. Until she was tapped for the Obama administration, she was on the board of directors for the National Audubon Society, the League of Conservation Voters, the Center for American Progress and former Vice President Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection.
Her name has been removed from the Gore organization's Web site list of directors, and the Audubon Society issued a press release about her departure from that organization.
Republicans said Mrs. Browner's work with Socialist International raises questions.
"Does she agree with the group's positions on global governance - that the United States should abdicate its international leadership to international organizations? Does she support its position that the international community should be the ultimate arbiter of climate change policy?" said Antonia Ferrier, a spokeswoman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.
"These are questions that merit answers - especially when you consider this group's deep skepticism about America's ability to be a force for positive change in the world," she said. An aide on the Obama team said its information shows that Mrs. Browner resigned from the organization in June 2008. The aide, who asked not to be named because he was discussing internal matters, said the transition team was aware she had been a member of the group when she was vetted.
The Socialist International Web site didn't have a copy of her June 30 speech, but the agenda for the meeting had her scheduled to speak as part of a panel on "How do we strengthen the multilateral architecture for a sustainable future?"
Other panel participants were Sergey Mironov, speaker of the Russian legislature's upper chamber and a close ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin; Zhang Zhijun, vice minister of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee; and Jesus Caldera, a former Minister of Employment and Social Affairs of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.
A woman answering the phone at Socialist International's headquarters in London said all officers were traveling. Nobody from the organization returned a message left Friday.
Socialist International bills itself as the world body of democratic socialist movements. It includes members ranging from Israel's Labor Party and France's Socialist Party to Angola's MPLA, which won the 1970s Angolan civil war with the aid of Soviet arms and Cuban troops.
The organization distinguishes itself from violent or revolutionary communist parties. However, some such groups, including the Chinese Communist Party, have been invited to its events as guest organizations.
The Democratic Socialists of America, not the Democratic Party, is listed as the group's U.S. representative. But Mrs. Browner was listed as an individual member of Socialist International, but not a member of the DSA.
While agreeing with Mr. Obama on the need for action to address climate change, the organization wants more draconian policies than the president-elect's preferred solution.
During the presidential campaign, Mr. Obama called for a cap-and-trade system to control carbon emissions. He argued that such a system is efficient and lets the free market determine where it's easiest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Socialist International says such "flexible mechanisms" do not clamp down hard enough on polluters.
The organization often takes a decidedly critical view of the U.S.
At this summer's meeting, the group issued a statement on economics that blasted the "neo-liberal market ideology and the unilateralist, U.S.-dominated approach in the global economic system," and attacked the U.S. for dominating international financial institutions.
At its meeting earlier in 2008 in Santiago, Chile, Socialist International endorsed "global governance" as the solution to the world's problems of peace and climate change.
At a July meeting in St. Petersburg, the commission said developed countries "should think of decreasing current consumption levels" - which would mean shrinking their economies - in order to help the environment.
Socialist International regularly blasts the construction of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The fence was approved by both houses of Congress, including with Mr. Obama's vote in the Senate.
Socialist International was congratulatory when Mr. Obama won the election, issuing a statement noting that "the sky may seem a bit brighter today" but warning still that "there are enormous global challenges that must be addressed effectively and without delay."
Source:http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/12/obama-climate-czar-...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/12/obama-climate-czar-...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by DocFord on -
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/12/12/crooked-carol-browner-obamas-e...
The trouble with Obama’s energy czar
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2008
Yet another Clintonite has been wheeled out of the political morgue to serve in the Obama administration. Carol Browner, a neon green radical who headed the Environmental Protection Agency from 1993-2000, is widely rumored to be the president-elect’s choice for “energy czar.” But an ethical cloud still hangs over Browner’s EPA legacy. It doesn’t take a team of Ivy League-degreed lawyers to figure out that this is one more headache the Hope and Change crew doesn’t need.
In the spirit of reaching across the aisle, let me dust off the cobwebs and help out all the smarty-pants vetters on the Obama team with a little background on Browner’s stained past:
On her last day in office, nearly eight years ago, Browner oversaw the destruction of agency computer files in brazen violation of a federal judge’s order requiring the agency to preserve its records. This from a public official who bragged about her tenure: “One of the things I’m the proudest of at EPA is the work we’ve done to expand the public’s right to know.”
Asked to explain her track-covering actions, the savvy career lawyer Browner played dumb. Figuratively batting her eyelashes, she claimed she had no clue about a court injunction signed by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth on the same day she commanded an underling to wipe her hard drives clean. Golly gee willikers, how could that have slipped by her?
According to testimony in a freedom of information lawsuit filed against EPA by the Landmark Legal Foundation, a Virginia-based conservative legal watchdog group, Browner commanded a computer technician on Jan. 19, 2001: “‘I would like my files deleted. I want you to delete my files.” Not coincidentally, the Landmark Legal Foundation had been pressing Browner to fully and publicly disclose the names of any special interest groups that may have influenced her wave of last-minute regulatory actions. Two days before she told her technician to purge all her records, EPA had gone to court to file a motion opposing the federal court injunction protecting those government documents.
Plausible deniability? Not bloody likely.
Incredibly, Browner asserted that there was no work-related material on her work computer. She explained she was merely cleaning the hard drive of computer games she had downloaded for her son, and that she wanted to expunge the hard drive as a “courtesy” to the incoming Bush administration. How thoughtful. Later, her agency admitted that three other top EPA officials had their computers erased despite the federal court order and ongoing FOIA case (the record is silent on whether Browner’s son was playing games on their desktops, too). A further belated admission revealed that the agency had failed to search Browner’s office for public documents as required by Landmark’s public disclosure lawsuit.
Not only were all the top officials’ hard drives cleared and reformatted, but e-mail backup tapes were erased and reused in violation of records preservation practices.
After a two-year legal battle, Judge Lamberth finally held the EPA in contempt of court for the systemic file destruction – actions Lambert lambasted as “contumacious conduct” (obstinate resistance to authority). As is typical in Washington, Browner weaseled out of any serious repercussions. Lamberth inexplicably decided that slapping the agency as a whole with contempt – rather than any individual – would deter future cover-ups.
Is this a gamble the Obama administration wants to take? Browner has crossed the line and violated public trust before in her capacity as eco-chief. Early in her first term as EPA head, Browner got caught by a congressional subcommittee using taxpayer funds to create and send out illegal lobbying material to over 100 grassroots environmental lobbying organizations. Browner exploited her office to orchestrate a political campaign by left-wing groups, who turned around and attacked Republican lawmakers for supporting regulatory reform. These are the very same groups – anti-business, anti-sound science, pro-eco-hysteria – that Browner would be working arm in arm with as Obama’s “energy czar.”
This is regression we can’t afford.
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Permalink Reply by teresa on -
Green Tracking Library
http://www.undueinfluence.com/carol_browner.htm
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Permalink Reply by kat 1776 on -
Read following article to find out what Carol is up to - A Secret White House Power Grab Is In Full Swing http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/09/23/phil-kerpen-browner-secre...
The article ends with this:
Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana has introduced an amendment (SA 2440) to the Department of the Interior appropriations bill that prohibits any federal funding for Browner’s policy directives. Any senator who votes against it is voting to support not just Carol Browner, but also her vast regulatory power grab and the president’s system of unaccountable czars.
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Permalink Reply by Cheryl Bowman on -
From BigGovernment.com: http://biggovernment.com/2009/11/27/climate-czar-browner-what-confl...
Climate Czar Browner: What Conflict of Interest?
by Christopher C. Horner
Well, here’s yet another thing the unconfirmable Obama “Climate Czarina” Carol Browner got around disclosing thanks to, and one more reason for being stuffed into, a position of influence through the backdoor of a phony job not subject to Senate confirmation, even while lording over Senate-confirmed constitutional officers:
She was on the board of one of the leading carbon offset trading companies, APX.
That makes for one really big conflict of interest in her role guiding the administration’s efforts to regulate carbon dioxide and force emitters to buy CO2 ration-coupons.
So, add this to her work for the Albright Group which is “secretive about its clients” (SourceWatch), violating a federal judge’s order to preserve documents by wiping computers clean while at EPA (sound at all relevant these days?), and her board membership for the Socialist International’s “climate” project.
Other than those I can’t think of too many reasons Obama wouldn’t want her subjected to disclosure requirements and scrutiny.
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