Conference brings Browner back to UF

February 20, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Carol Browner, a University of Florida Levin College of Law alumna and former director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, is the keynote speaker for the 18th annual Public Interest Environmental Conference.

“Fishable? Swimmable? 40 Years of Water Law in Florida and the United States,” will be held Thursday through Saturday at the college of law and will celebrate the 40th anniversary of two of the most significant laws guiding water policy in Florida – the federal Clean Water Act and the Florida Water Resources Act. Browner has administered both acts during her career.

She was Florida’s Secretary of Environmental Regulation from 1991 to 1993 before serving in President Bill Clinton’s cabinet as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 1993 to 2001, becoming the longest-serving administrator in the agency’s history. Browner directed the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy from 2009 to 2011 under President Barack Obama.

Browner has vast experience in developing environmental policies and helped initiate the Food Quality Protection Act, which updated pesticide use standards, and worked with Congress to reauthorize the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The conference also will bring together others who have played a role in shaping Florida’s water policy.

A special brown-bag lunch event Friday will feature authors of both recent and forthcoming “water books” discussing the role of writers in focusing attention on water policy in Florida, facilitated by journalist and author Cynthia Barnett, a Gainesville resident. The Friday night banquet will feature Browner as the keynote speaker.

Saturday’s sessions will be devoted to the current practice of water law and on the future of Florida’s water resources. To register, visit http://www.law.ufl.edu/piec/registration.shtml. Registration is free for UF faculty, staff and students.

The conference is sponsored by UF Law’s Environmental and Land Use Law Program.