Christine Todd Whitman served as the first female governor of New Jersey from 1994 to 2001 and was Environmental Protection Agency administrator under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003.

She is president of the The Whitman Strategy Group, a consulting firm that specializes in energy and environmental issues, and she co-directs the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, an advocacy group started and funded by the Nuclear Energy Institute.

During her time as EPA administrator, Whitman was at odds with the Bush administration on climate change. She openly declared global warming was real, the science was strong, and that government action was required. The administration held a diametrically different position.

Given the steep divide in opinion, Whitman was constantly battling the White House on climate issues. The EPA was placed front and center of the growing climate controversy in 2003, when a whistleblower revealed Philip Cooney, the chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, was editing EPA scientific documents outlining the growing issue of climate change.

Whitman resigned her position in 2003. In the years that have followed, she has not only criticized the Bush administration for its actions on climate change, but also a publicly advocated for government to address climate change through new policy.