53 Facts About Carol Browner

Carol Martha Browner was born on December 16,1955 and is an American lawyer, environmentalist, and businesswoman, who served as director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2011.

Carol Browner grew up in Florida and graduated from the University of Florida and the University of Florida College of Law.

Carol Browner then headed the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation from 1991 to 1993, where she turned it into one of the most active departments in the state government.

Carol Browner was the longest-serving administrator in the history of the EPA, staying through both terms of the Clinton presidency.

Carol Browner started a successful program to deal with contaminated lands in urban areas.

Carol Browner took the lead within the administration in defending existing environmental laws and budgets and was the driving force behind a stringent tightening of air quality standards that led to a prolonged political and legal battle.

Carol Browner served on a number of boards of directors and committees dealing with environmental issues.

Carol Browner left her position in 2011 and the job itself was abolished shortly thereafter.

Carol Browner then graduated from the University of Florida College of Law with a JD degree in 1979.

Carol Browner met Michael Podhorzer, a specialist in health-care issues at Citizen Action, in 1983.

Between 1986 and 1988, Carol Browner served as chief legislative assistant to Democratic US Senator Lawton Chiles from Florida.

Carol Browner was not averse to in-field investigation, and once dived in coastal waters to do research while pregnant.

From 1988 to 1991, Carol Browner worked as legislative director for Senator Al Gore, and became known as a Gore protege.

Carol Browner helped prepare amendments to the Clean Air Act and managed Gore's legislative staff.

Carol Browner revitalized the demoralized department and turned it into one of the most active in the Florida state government.

Carol Browner shortened the amount of time it took the department to review development permits for wetlands-affected areas and for manufacturing plants; in doing so, she annoyed some environmentalists who thought that the streamlined procedures diminished public review.

Carol Browner pushed for the halting of construction of new hazardous waste plants and municipal waste incinerators, on the grounds that health and environmental consequences were insufficiently known.

Carol Browner brokered a deal with Walt Disney World that would allow it to build on wetlands it owned, in exchange for $40 million of work by Disney to restore endangered wetlands nearby.

At her confirmation hearings before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Carol Browner came across as pragmatic and allayed fears that she would be excessively influenced by or tied to Gore.

Carol Browner was confirmed by the unanimous consent of the United States Senate on January 21,1993.

Carol Browner avoided the Nannygate problems of some of Clinton's other early female nominees by having never used a nanny.

Carol Browner continued to lead an active outdoor life via bicycling, skiing, and jogging.

Carol Browner found criticism from both sides of environmental issues and battled many environmentalists, who objected to her support for repeal of the 1958 Delaney clause regarding permissible levels of carcinogens in foods.

Carol Browner was able to work in a bipartisan manner, though, with Republicans in helping craft amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act and passage of the Food Quality Protection Act.

Two initiatives begun by the Clinton administration under Carol Browner's tenure were part of its "reinventing government" program and sought to realize the notion of environmental contracts as a way of expanding the EPA's flexible public-private partnerships, as an alternative to traditional regulation.

Carol Browner denied the accusation, saying the charge was an attempt to keep her from debating a possible rollback of health and environmental protections.

Coleman-Adebayo said that Carol Browner allowed the problems to persist rather than trying to clean them up.

Carol Browner had said that she had not been aware of the court order and that the computer material she had removed was not work-related.

Carol Browner battled the Treasury Department at times, and sometimes opposed Clinton himself, who tended to give priority to economic growth over environmental considerations.

Clinton himself later stated that Carol Browner had accumulated a long list of important achievements.

Carol Browner became a founding member and principal of Albright Capital Management, an investment advisory company.

Carol Browner joined the board of the National Audubon Society in 2001 and became chair in 2003; her term expired in 2008.

Carol Browner joined the board of the Alliance for Climate Protection, an organization founded by Gore in 2006.

Carol Browner was on the founding board of the Center for American Progress as well as the boards of the Alliance for Climate Protection and the League of Conservation Voters.

Carol Browner left all of these boards in late 2008 when she was named to serve in the Obama administration.

Carol Browner's income in 2008 was between $1 million and $5 million from lobbying firm Downey McGrath Group, where her husband was a principal.

Carol Browner reported $450,000 in "member distribution" income, plus retirement and other benefits from the Albright Group.

Carol Browner stated that global warming is "the greatest challenge ever faced".

On November 5,2008, Carol Browner was named to the advisory board of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.

Carol Browner's position was sometimes informally described as the "Energy Czar" or the "Climate Czar".

Carol Browner was a key negotiator between the administration and automakers in formulating the new United States emission standards in May 2009, and was a member of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry that bailed out American automakers.

Carol Browner successfully urged incorporation of tens of billions of dollars for renewable energy programs into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Carol Browner was a central player in negotiation with Congress of the United States Carbon Cap and Trade Program, seemingly more so than US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and continued to stress its importance despite the Obama health care plan being the top legislative priority overall.

Carol Browner became a brief target of fervent anti-"czar" radio and television commentator Glenn Beck, following the Van Jones resignation.

In October 2009, Carol Browner conceded that congressional passage of the cap-and-trade legislation before the end of the year was unlikely, and feared its absence would harm prospects for meaningful international agreement at the Copenhagen United Nations Climate Change Conference in December.

In 2010, Carol Browner became a key part of the administration team handling, and one of the more visible administration figures in issuing public comments about, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In late February 2011, while Carol Browner was still in place, the House voted to eliminate the Director of the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy position altogether.

Obama issued a signing statement protesting the move and saying he would not abide by it, but the point was largely moot as the positions in question, including the Carol Browner one, had already been moved inside the Domestic Policy Council.

Carol Browner rejoined the Center for American Progress in April 2011 as a Distinguished Senior Fellow and a member of the organization's Executive Committee.

Carol Browner rejoined the Albright firm, now known due to merger as the Albright Stonebridge Group, as a Senior Counselor whose responsibilities included providing strategic services to clients in assorted areas of environmental impact.

Carol Browner continued to speak publicly on environmental issues and indicated she was "disappointed" by the Obama administration's September 2011 decision to drop toughening of low-altitude ozone levels in the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

In July 2013, Carol Browner was named to the board of directors of Bunge Limited, a global agribusiness and food company.

In September 1997 Carol Browner was honored as one of the 47 Distinguished Alumnae of University of Florida.