The failure to clinch energy and environment legislation in former President Barack Obama’s first term was a “significant missed opportunity,” Obama’s former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a recently released oral history.
Another official, former Energy Secretary Steven Chu, went so far to say that Obama should have tried to “shake down” lawmakers to garner votes.
While the massive health care law, the Affordable Care Act, was among the Obama administration’s top legislative priorities, another big priority was sweeping energy and climate legislation.
But that effort ultimately took a back seat to the health care effort and fizzled in the Senate, frustrating senior Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the administration.