When former GOP Rep. Ray LaHood was initially tapped to run Barack Obama’s Department of Transportation, transit activists were a bit befuddled.
Fans of LaHood lauded his bipartisan relationships and grasp of the
legislative process while pointing out he had previously bucked his party’s aversion to Amtrak. But he was also on record
as opposing high-speed rail in Illinois, had little transportation
experience, and had garnered a meager 27 percent lifetime rating from
the League of Conservation Voters. With the world facing imminent
ecological disaster and a major surface transportation bill
slated for reauthorization this year, the prospect of an
anti-environmental Republican reshaping the nation’s transit and vehicle emissions policies was a bit disconcerting.
But it appears Obama isn’t letting LaHood deviate too much from the administration’s playbook. ClimateWire reports:
The Transportation Department will follow the lead of the White House’s top climate and environmental officials when it comes to meeting President Obama’s global warming agenda, DOT Secretary Ray LaHood said today.
LaHood said [White House coordinator for energy and climate issues Carol] Browner and U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson would most likely do the heavy lifting when it comes to meeting Obama’s climate goals. DOT is “in the room, we’re at the table, but we probably have less of a role than perhaps some of these other agencies do,” he said at the Washington forum.
That’s unquestionably good news. Browner is a leading voice in the environmental progressive community and likely understands the key connections between climate change, demographic shifts, and the way we move goods and people. So does Vice President Joe Biden, a long-time proponent of rail. And Obama is no slouch on this front either. The nation’s transit riders will benefit greatly if Browner and the inner-circle design policy and LaHood sticks to twisting arms.
Comments
coupeditor (not verified) on Thu, 02/26/2009 - 17:35
History of Discrimination at Energy Czar Carol Browner's EPA:
In 2000, a jury found that the EPA, under then-administrator Carol Browner, was guilty of race, sex, and color-based discrimination, and that Ms. Browner tolerated a hostile work environment. During subsequent oversight hearings of the Congressional Science Committee, the Chairman instructed Browner to clean up the working conditions at EPA so the next administrator wouldn't get handed "a garbage can."
Despite promising to do so under oath, Ms. Browner never accepted the jury's findings as EPA Administrator. She never disciplined any of the senior managers under her supervision at EPA who were implicated in Coleman-Adebayo v. Carol Browner. She never stopped the appeal process in the case. It was her successor, Christine Todd Whitman, in her 1st act as EPA Administrator, who announced that the verdict in Coleman-Adebayo would not be appealed, and that the Agency would accept the jury's findings.
Congress was so outraged by the conditions within EPA, that it passed unanimously in both houses the NoFEAR Act (Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation) 2001 and mandated that all Federal new hires be instructed in Coleman-Adebayo v Browner within 90 days, and that all Federal workers receive the instruction every 2 years.
Apparently, being found guilty of discrimination by a jury of her peers, having Congress enact legislation to outlaw her administrative behavior, and mandate that all Federal workers be instructed in Coleman-Adebayo v Browner was not enough to derail Ms.Browner's career, or to prevent the retaliation against Dr. Coleman-Adebayo from the EPA that continues to this day.
These are not "allegations," they are matters of public record.
The core of the case in Coleman-Adebayo v Carol Browner was Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. President Obama is a civil rights attorney. The question of justice in this matter has not been adequately addressed, with Ms. Browner's ascension back into the heights of power, while Dr. Coleman-Adebayo, who stood up for civil rights for all Federal employees was thrown under the bus where Rosa Parks, a generation before her, took her stand.
The media need to start asking the president, Ms. Browner, and new EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson, what the public is to make of this regrettable case of a whistleblower being vilified, while her tormentors, Carol M. Browner, and the staff she left behind at EPA are still retaliating, still discriminating against whistleblowers (who may be able to prevent poisonous peanuts from killing people), and still thrive within the EPA.
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