Ex-climate czar: White House won’t hinder EPA

Carol Browner, President Obama’s former climate czar, doesn’t expect the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to put hurdles in front of the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate change regulations.

Browner, who led the EPA under President Clinton, points out in an interview with Bloomberg that the EPA is acting on instructions from Obama himself.

{mosads}“I ran the EPA for eight years, and the president never gave me a memo on the front end, saying ‘get something done.’ The EPA finds itself in a position of not having to argue with the White House or OMB [the Office of Management and Budget] about whether to do something. They can focus on how to do it,” Browner said.

Obama in June issued an order telling the EPA to propose carbon emissions standards for new power plants in September 2013, which the agency did, and complete them a year later.

The same order requires the EPA to float carbon standards for existing plants in June 2014 and complete them a year later. States would then craft programs to meet the guidelines for existing plants.

Check out the whole interview with Browner here.