Lisa Heinzerling, the E.P.A.’s policy chief, is stepping down at the end of the year. Poltico has the gossip behind the move:
Heinzerling gained fame in the environmental community for her role in helping to win a landmark 2007 U.S. Supreme Court case that gave EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. At EPA, she’s played a leading role in crafting the agency’s controversial climate policies as Jackson’s senior climate policy attorney and then as the associate administrator of EPA’s Office of Policy.
“I think she’s probably the farthest left and most committed of anyone on the team, with the exception of Carol Browner,” on climate change, said an industry attorney familiar with the agency, referring to the former agency administrator and President Barack Obama’s energy and climate adviser.
Gilfillan rejected the idea of any policy division among senior agency officials. “We understand that good gossip makes for good copy, but POLITICO is flat out wrong, as are the anonymous sources they quote – there are no ‘camps’ at EPA on these issues,” he said in an e-mail.