Lisa Heinzerling
Outgoing Assistant Administrator, Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation, Environmental Protection Agency (since February 2009)

(Georgetown University
Law Center)
"The President has pledged to make responding to the threat of climate change a high priority of his administration," Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Lisa P. Jackson wrote in a January 2009 memo to agency employees. Jackson brought Heinzerling to the EPA to help her achieve that goal. But following major GOP gains in the 2010 elections that put climate change on the back burner, Heinzerling planned to leave the agency at the end of 2010 to return to Georgetown.
A former Georgetown Law professor, Heinzerling became an environmental darling for her role in the landmark 2007 U.S. Supreme Court case, Massachusetts v. EPA. She helped the state of Massachusetts successfully argue that the EPA should be responsible for regulating greenhouse gases that could cause climate change under the Clean Air Act.
- Career History: Professor of Environmental and Administrative Law, Georgetown University law Center (1993 to 2009); Assistant Attorney General, Environmental Protection Division, Massachusetts' Attorney General's office (1990 to 1993)
- Hometown: Chaska, Minn.
- Alma Mater: Princeton University, A.B. (philosophy), 1983; University of Chicago Law School, J.D., 1987
- Spouse: Bob Lechleider
- Office: Environmental Protection AgencyAriel Rios Building1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20460, (202) 272-0167
- Web site
Heinzerling spent much of her childhood hiking near the small-town of Chaska, Minn. She received her A.B. in philosophy from Princeton University before getting her J.D. at the University of Chicago Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the law review.
After law school she got a plum clerking job for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and then an even more-coveted clerkship with Justice William Brennan of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Heinzerling was a driving force behind the landmark 2007 Massachusetts v. EPA Supreme Court decision. As the lead author of the plaintiffs' briefs, Heinzerling made the scientific argument that emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from motor vehicles were classified as pollutants under 1970's Clean Air Act and thus the EPA has to regulate them.
But the court decision was only the beginning of the struggle to actually implement regulations during the George W. Bush administration. In a January 2009 memo, Obama's incoming EPA head Jackson pledged to "move ahead to comply with the Supreme Court's decision recognizing EPA's obligation to address climate change under the Clean Air Act."
Heinzerling has been an affiliated scholar at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. The center, founded by Obama's transition team co-chair John D. Podesta, hosted many Obama officials during the George W. Bush years, including the State Department's special envoy for climate change, Todd D. Stern.
At the EPA, Heinzerling reports to administrator Jackson. David McIntosh is also a senior policy adviser.
Heinzerling donated $2,300 to Barack Obama in October 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
- Bravender, Robin, Politico, EPA policy chief steps down, Nov. 4, 2010
- Lisa Heinzerling's CAP profile
- Goldberg, Nicholas, "Your Money or Your Life," The Los Angeles Times, February 1, 2009
- Tomlinson, Brett, "Reunions 2008," Princeton Alumni Weekly, July 16, 2008
- Eilperin, Juliet, "EPA Proposes Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Th Washington Post, April 17, 2009
- Heinzerling, Lisa, "Cost-benefit Environmentalism: An Oxymoron," Grist.com, May 14, 2008
- Eilperin, Juliet, "EPA Proposes Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Th Washington Post, April 17, 2009
- Sunstein, Cass R. "Your Money or Your Life," The New Republic, March 15, 2004
- Testimony of Lisa Heinzerling before the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, March 13, 2008
- Jackson, Lisa P., "Memo to EPA Employees," EPA Web site, January 23, 2009
- Barnes, Robert, "EPA Can Weigh Cost-Benefits in Environmental Action, Court Says," The Washington Post, April 2, 2009
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