P.B. Consults with White House on Energy Issues
February 27, 2009
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and other members of the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program recently met with Carol M. Browner, who is Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change.
Energy conservation and climate change are just two of many topics about which the new administration has sought out the views of The Episcopal Church and other faiths, a policy Bishop Jefferts Schori said was “refreshing and exceeding hopeful.”
Advocacy work is seen by Bishop Jefferts Schori and other leaders in The Episcopal Church as a function of living out the church’s Baptismal Covenant which includes a promise to “strive for justice and peace.” Based on resolutions passed at General Convention and by Executive Council, staff members from The Episcopal Church’s Office of Governmental Relations (OGR) advocate on behalf of social justice policies with the White House and with the U.S. Congress. Maureen Shea is the director of OGR. the rest
posted by Pat Dague @ 3:48 PM
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1 Comments:
While I found your article interesting it is hard to understand how Carol Browner can be mentioned without reference to her Environmental Agency's conviction for discrimination. Irrespective of Browner's inside knowledge of the President's policies, it is clear that Carol Browner is still directly in the chain of command between the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency she left in disgrace. Browner's presence can only send a chilling message throughout the Agency that the master is back in command. Carol Browner's history of discrimination and retaliation at EPA is well documented.
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 courageous whistleblower, Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, being vilified, while her tormentors, Carol M. Browner -- and the staff Browner left behind at EPA -- are still retaliating, still discriminating against whistleblowers (who may be able to prevent poisonous peanuts from killing people), and still thriving within the EPA.
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