"EPA Chief: Trump Can’t Halt U.S. Shift To Clean Energy"

"The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday gave an impassioned defense of the Obama administration’s energy and environmental policies and insisted the nation’s shift from fossil fuels will continue no matter who occupies the White House.

“The inevitability of our clean energy future is bigger than any one person or one nation,” Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a speech at the National Press Club that was twice interrupted by protesters. “It must be guided by a simple but profound truth: We don’t have to choose between economy or environment. We can and we must choose both.”

McCarthy mostly deflected specific questions about worries over President-elect Donald Trump, who has been a blistering critic of the EPA. Trump has vowed to scrap what he sees as onerous regulations the agency has put in place in recent years, from tighter methane controls on domestic drillers to the administration’s signature effort to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants. He also has vowed to end the “war on coal,” expand oil and gas leasing across federal lands and waters, and “cancel” U.S. participation in an international climate agreement aimed at reducing carbon emissions."

Brady Dennis reports for the Washington Post November 21, 2016.