GONE – AT 8:25 A.M. ET:  Carol Browner, the president's point woman on energy and "climate change" policy, is leaving the administration.  Browner, who's hinted in the past that she's a socialist (shock), doesn't exactly have big victories to point to.  From The Washington Post:

Carol Browner, an key adviser to President Obama on energy and environmental issues, said Monday night that she plans to leave the White House.

Her departure comes as something of a surprise. Browner had been a key part of the team helping to deal with and stop the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

Notice her effectiveness.  What precisely did she do?

And she had been deeply involved in congressional negotiations over climate legislation. The measure passed the House last year but died in the Senate, and given the current makeup of Congress, its prospects of coming up for a vote are widely seen as nil. President Obama is instead expected to seek common ground with Republicans over ways to promote the burning of natural gas, rather than coal, by utilities with aging coal plants.

Given this record, why does the reporter say that her departure is "something of a surprise"?  Wouldn't you leave too?

Advisers described Browner as an integral voice in internal discussions, the rare outsider to join the upper ranks of Obama's staff. The Florida native's departure comes at a time when many industrial and mining companies, and as Republicans -- and a few Democrats -- are vowing to block the EPA from implementing new regulations on large generators of greenhouse gases.

Environmentalists regarded her as a key liaison to the West Wing, and her leaving is certain to add to the anxiety of many on the political left already nervous about Obama's outreach to industry.

We weep and cry.

COMMENT:  Environmentalists have enormous power within the Democratic Party.  And being pro-environment is hardly controversial.  However, more and more Americans are becoming skeptical about some of the more extreme claims of the environmental movement (or industry, if you will).  Someone in Browner's position could have performed a real service by trying to get to the truth of some of the claims and counter-claims, but she either chose not to, or knew that it was impossible in a Democratic administration.

January 25, 2011