Robert M. Sussman

Clinton EPA

By the time Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, Sussman had gotten to know a few people who worked on environment and energy issues with environmental advocate and Vice President Al Gore. Among them was Kathleen A. McGinty, who headed Clinton’s White House Council on Environmental Quality; and Carol M. Browner, who ran the EPA under Clinton and now serves as Obama’s White House energy czar.

Sussman was drafted as deputy administrator of the EPA under Browner. He was a key player in the reauthorization of Superfund, the government’s program to clean up hazardous waste sites.  He also tackled the environmental implications of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), creating a North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation. He worked on climate change and endangered species issues, and created a science policy council at EPA.Kamen, Al, “Focus on the Game, Not the Team Picture,” The Washington Post, February 5, 2009 

“I accomplished a lot of things that I had wanted to accomplish,” he said of his busy two years at EPA.

Environmental Law Practice and Lobbyist

In 1996, Sussman returned to Latham & Watkins to chair the firm’s environmental practice.  He focused on “a range of environmental and energy issues,” he said.WhoRunsGov.com Interview, February 24, 2009 He made two appearances before the U.S. Supreme Court . He also registered as a lobbyist , lobbying for groups including Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, the Business Roundtable and Navistar International, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.www.opensecrets.org

Sussman retired from Latham & Watkins at the end of 2007, and in 2008 became a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, the liberal think tank founded by Clinton chief of staff and Obama adviser John D. Podesta. There, he wrote and spoke about climate change and energy issues, including authoring the chapter on China and climate change in CAP’s comprehensive China strategy.Hachigian, Nina, Michael Schiffer, and Winny Chen,“A Global Imperative: A Progressive Approach to U.S.-China relations in the 21st Century,” Center for American Progress, August 13, 2008 

Furthermore, Sussman authored papers on carbon capture and sequestration for coal plants,Berlin, Ken and Robert M. Sussman, “Global Warming and the Future of Coal,” Center for American Progress, May 31, 2007   and testified before Senate on the subject.

“[I] feel pretty good that a lot of the proposals we outlined in those papers have been embraced and accepted by others and are now surfacing in various legislative proposals,” he said.WhoRunsGov.com Interview, February 24, 2009

Obama Adviser

During most of 2008, Sussman was also advising then-candidate Barack Obama on environment and energy issues. After Obama’s election, he joined Lisa P. Jackson to chair the transition team’s environmental policy working group.

“Our mission was to understand what happened to EPA during the Bush administration and also understand what the big pending issues were,” he said. “We talked to the Hill, we talked to industry, we talked to environmental groups, so we not only got an internal perspective on the agency but we got an external perspective as well.”WhoRunsGov.com Interview, February 24, 2009

Environmental law groups mentioned Sussman’s name as a possible head of the EPA, but Jackson was chosen, and Sussman returned to EPA as her deputy.

“It’s like I never left,” he joked.WhoRunsGov.com Interview, February 24, 2009  

Air, Water and Waste

“I think, though it may sound a bit unglamorous, there are huge challenges we face as a country in relation to water, waste, toxic chemicals, clean-up of contaminated sites, and of course, air,” Sussman said.WhoRunsGov.com Interview, February 24, 2009

He hopes to work on improving infrastructure for clean drinking water, overhauling wetlands protections and protection and clean-up of ecosystems including the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay.

And that’s just water. “I can go through each of these programs and tick off six or seven issues that are really big,” he said. “There’s a lot going on.”WhoRunsGov.com Interview, February 24, 2009

“The EPA has been under-resourced, particularly in the Bush administration, and that’s made it difficult to get the job done,” Sussman said. He called Obama’s pledge to increase the EPA’s budget “a great vote of confidence.”WhoRunsGov.com Interview, February 24, 2009

Toxic Chemicals

Sussman’s background working with legal issues surrounding toxic chemicals will come in handy in his work on EPA chemical policy, which he said is important to Administrator Jackson.  “To strengthen safeguards against exposure to toxic chemicals is a big priority for her,” he said.WhoRunsGov.com Interview, February 24, 2009

Lobbying

During his years at Latham & Watkins, Sussman was a registered lobbyist, who often lobbied the EPA, the White House, Department of Energy, Congress and international organizations, according to the firm’s Web site.Robert M. Sussman Attorney bio on the Latham & Watkins Web site  

Obama administration appointees must sign a pledge saying they will not participate in any matter related to organizations they used to represent or topics they once lobbied.See the Ethics Commitment on the White House Web site   It’s an effort to close the “revolving door” that leads former lobbyists to government jobs in which they can influence the interests of former clients.