"The White House is expected to fill the EPA slot left vacant by Gina McCarthy's promotion by naming Janet McCabe, a deputy who will be tasked with navigating the legal hurdles that lie ahead."
"President Obama is expected to nominate Janet McCabe, a deputy administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency's clean-air office, to head that division, according to sources familiar with his thinking. The position would put her at the heart of the president's historic and controversial global-warming agenda. She would be charged with crafting massive new pollution regulations affecting the nation's coal-fired power plants—rules that could eventually freeze the nation's coal industry, but also position the U.S. as a global leader on climate change.
An EPA spokesman would not confirm that Obama intends to nominate McCabe.
In a series of impassioned speeches this year, Obama has made clear that he wants to make fighting climate change a cornerstone of his legacy. Just as clear is the certainty that the divided, gridlocked Congress will not pass the sweeping legislation necessary to do that. Instead, Obama will flex his executive muscles, using the authority of the EPA to roll out a series of regulations to slash the nation's carbon pollution and fundamentally reshape the nation's energy sector. The rules are already being met with a swarm of political and legal pushback. Republicans charge that with the climate rules, Obama is waging a "war on coal." Meanwhile, the coal industry is prepared to meet the rules with an onslaught of legal attacks."
Coral Davenport reports for National Journal August 28, 2013.
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