Environmentalists appealed to President Barack Obama to stand up to what they called “corporate polluter lobbyists” and support a pro-environment agenda in his State of the Union address which he made early today, Irish time.
At the same time, in a move that augurs ill for Mr Obama’s environmental policy, White House officials told reporters that Carol Browner, who has served as the president’s “energy tsar” will leave the White House in the coming weeks and may not be replaced.
More than 20 environmental and public health organisations wrote to Mr Obama last week urging him to stand up for the Evironmental Protection Agency in his speech. The agency, which begun the process of regulating greenhouse gas emissions this year, has become the prime target for anti-government Republicans.
They, along with Democrats from coal and oil states, are pushing to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, while environmental organisations want a commitment from Mr Obama to use his presidential veto power to stop any such move.
The news of Ms Browner’s imminent departure reinforced environmental groups concerns that he was preparing further compromises on his once-ambitious green agenda to try to build a working arrangement with Republicans.
The environmental group Friends of the Earth appealed to Mr Obama to commit to protecting the Clean Air Act, and to veto any attempted rollbacks by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
The president has come under pressure from the main business lobby, the Chamber of Commerce, which opposes environmental regulations.
Ms Browner’s exit also recalled the extent to which Mr Obama failed to realise his sweeping campaign promise of weaning America off fossil fuels, and making the transition to a new clean energy economy.
Ms Browner, who headed the environmental protection agency during the Clinton administration, was seen as a shrewd operative, and was designated Mr Obama’s point person in the effort to enact climate change legislation.
With Democrats in control of both houses of Congress, environmental organisations in early 2009 saw reasonable prospects for the passage of comprehensive climate change legislation.
In Mr Obama’s first months in the White House, Ms Browner presided over a complex set of negotiations with US car manufacturers to produce an agreement that would increase fuel efficiency by as much as 25 per cent over the next five years.
She was also credited with giving Democratic leaders in Congress room to build support to pass a climate change Bill through the house of representatives in June 2009. But the effort to pass cap and trade Bill foundered in the Senate last year – with some Democrats blaming the president for failing to send a strong enough signal that he was behind the Bill. Others blamed the White House for choosing to move forward on healthcare reform before energy and climate change.
Since the Democrats’ defeat in November’s midterm elections, Mr Obama has said he will not seek to pass sweeping climate change legislation.
“I think there are a lot of Republicans that ran against the energy Bill that passed in the House last year and so it’s doubtful that you could get the votes to pass that through the House this year or next year or the year after,” Mr Obama told a post-election press conference.
Ms Browner’s reputation also took a hit with the Obama administration’s handling of the BP oil spill.
In August, she made the now-notorious claim on behalf of the White House that the “vast majority” of the 4.9 million barrels of oil that spewed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s broken well was gone. Her statement was later discredited.
Even before reports of Ms Browner’s exit, environmental organisations had already been expressing fears that Mr Obama was prepared to sacrifice his green agenda to his efforts to build a working relationship with Republicans.