The Obama EPA: A First Look

摘要

Changes at the Environmental Protection Agency since January 20, 2009 have been anything but subtle. There are new priorities, new philosophies and a sense of urgency that was absent from the Bush administration EPA. The change in tone is clear from President Obama's appointment of Lisa Jackson, former head of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, as EPA administrator, and Carol Browner, former EPA administrator, to the new position of special adviser to the president on climate change and energy (the so-called "climate czar"). Add to this a proposed EPA budget of $10.5 billion (the largest in the agency's 39-year history and a 40 percent increase from 2008) and the message is unmistakable: environmental protection is now a high priority (just in case you slept through the elections).