In a news conference in Chicago, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama introduced Nobel physics laureate Steven Chu as Energy Secretary; Lisa Jackson (center), chief of staff for New Jersey's governor, to run the EPA; former Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner (right), to head a new council to coordinate White House energy climate, and environment policies; and Nancy Sutley, a deputy mayor of Los. Angeles, as head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (Stephen J. Carrera / REUTERS)
Obama’s green team
By Eoin O'Carroll | 12.15.08
At a news conference in Chicago Monday, Barack Obama announced many of his energy and environment appointees, a team that many say signals a sharp break from Bush administration policies toward pollution, wildlife, clean energy, and climate change.
“In the 21st century, we know that the future of our economy and national security is inextricably linked to one challenge: energy,” Obama said Monday, according to a press release. “The team that I have assembled here today is uniquely suited to meet the great challenges of this defining moment. They are leading experts and accomplished managers, and they are ready to reform government and help transform our economy so that our people are more prosperous, our nation is more secure, and our planet is protected. I look forward to working with them in the years ahead.”
The picks are as follows:
Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy
Mr. Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who runs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has been tapped to head the Department of Energy, an agency charged with designing and producing nuclear weapons, disposing of radioactive waste, overseeing domestic energy production, and conducting energy-related research.
On that last front, Chu has spearheaded many clean energy initiatives at the Berkeley Lab, many of which have focused on using non-food plants to convert sunlight into liquid fuel. One of these initiatives, known as Helios, is expected to begin construction in 2010. Chu’s Nobel Prize came in 1997 for his contributions to “laser cooling,” a method of trapping gaseous atoms with laser light. This technique makes it easier to study atoms.
Chu is highly respected in physics circles, but according to CNN, some Democrats are concerned at his lack of political experience.
If nominated and confirmed, Chu will be the first Chinese-American to hold this office.
Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change
The Obama administration has created a new role in response to what it sees as a challenge in coordinating all of the federal agencies that have a hand in energy policy. These include the Transportation Department, which mandates fuel economy standards; the Interior Department, which grants permits for oil and gas drilling on federal land; the EPA, which regulates air quality; the Department of Commerce, which develops infrastructure to promote economic growth and sustainable development; and the Department of Energy.
This role is probably an outgrowth of a February 2008 proposal by the Center for American Progress, which called for a White House-level advisor to coordinate energy-related federal agencies as well as “outreach with states, localities, and the private sector, and U.S. leadership and partnership in international efforts to reduce global emissions.” The Center for American Progress was founded by former Clinton chief-of-staff John Podesta, who also co-chairs Obama’s transition team.
The position was quickly dubbed by the media as “energy czar,” a term that the Obama team reportedly dislikes.
Ms. Browner, a former adviser to Sen. Al Gore, served as head of the Environmental Protection Agency from 1993 to 2001. Since then, she has worked for the Albright Group, a “global strategy firm” headed by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that helps corporations do business internationally. Browner is also the chair of the National Audubon Society.
Browner’s husband, former New York Rep. Tom Downey, has lobbied on behalf of some of the world’s largest polluters, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
Working under Browner as Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change will be Heather Zichal. Ms. Zichal served as the Policy Director for Energy, Environment, and Agriculture for Obama’s presidential campaign, and in 2004 drafted John Kerry’s energy and environment policies.
Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator
The Environmental Protection Agency is not a cabinet department, but the 17,000-employee agency’s head is considered to have a cabinet-level position.
Ms. Jackson, a former EPA scientist who from 2006 until this month ran New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, has her work cut out for her. Many observers say that the agency has become demoralized under the current administrator, Stephen Johnson. In February, 19 union leaders representing about 10,000 EPA employees sent a letter to Johnson claiming that he had repeatedly violated the agency’s standards of scientific integrity. In April, the Union of Concerned Scientists released the result of a survey that found that 889 of 1,586 staff scientists at the EPA reported that they have experienced political interference in their work in the past five years.
These revelations were followed by Congressional inquiries into whether the agency was improperly influenced by the White House in rulings ranging from ground-level ozone standards to tailpipe emissions.
Many environmentalists are cheered by the prospect of a Jackson-led EPA. The environmental advocacy group Environment New Jersey praised the New Orleans native, calling her selection “180-degree turnaround for the United States on the environment.”
But other environmental groups have not been so approving. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a resource for government whistle-blowers, sent out a harshly critical press release calling Jackson’s record “disastrous” and accusing her of taking “highly politicized approach to decisionmaking that resulted in suppression of scientific information, issuance of gag orders, and threats against professional staff members who dared to voice concerns.”
If nominated and confirmed, Jackson would be the first black EPA administrator.
Nancy Sutley, Chair of White House Council on Environmental Quality
According to its website, the Council on Environmental Quality is a division of the White House that “coordinates federal environmental efforts and works closely with agencies and other White House offices in the development of environmental policies and initiatives.”
Ms. Sutley currently serves as Los Angeles’s Deputy Mayor for Energy and Environment and on the board for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Before that, she served as an EPA administrator under President Clinton and as an energy adviser to California Gov. Gray Davis.
The online eco-mag Grist spoke with many who worked with Sutley, and characterizes her as quiet, reserved, and thorough:
One source said the selection of Sutley sends a message that Obama will not use the CEQ chair as a “cheerleading” position to justify particular environmental stances, as both President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush did, but rather as someone who can quickly and deftly handle the already mounting workload of dealing with lengthy reports and other requests for action from a wide spectrum of environmental and business groups.
“She is very good in a bureaucratic setting,” said a veteran California environmental official. “If you’ve got 10 people you need to sit down, and you’ve got to get something done, she’ll get it done.”
Sutley, an early supporter of Hiliary Clinton’s presidential bid, would be the first prominent gay person to be given a senior role in Obama’s administration.
And the rest?
There is still no word on Obama’s picks for the departments of Interior, Agriculture, and Transportation, each of which have extensive environmental responsibilites.
Many sources say that Sen. Ken Salazar, a moderate Democrat from Colorado, is Obama’s likely pick for Interior Secretary. Also on the list are David Hayes, a former deputy interior secretary under Clinton who now heads Obama’s transition teams for energy and natural resources; and John Berry, director of the National Zoo.
The Associated Press offers up lists of contenders for the various open cabinet posts. Here they are for the departments of Transportation and Agriculture:
<< Obama’s likely EPA pick praised, vilified | MainTRANSPORTATION SECRETARY
Jane Garvey, former head of Federal Aviation Administration.
Mortimer Downey, former deputy transportation secretary.
Steve Heminger, executive director, San Francisco Bay area transportation commission.
Ron Kirk, former Dallas mayor.
AGRICULTURE SECRETARY
Dennis Wolff, Pennsylvania agriculture secretary.
Tom Buis, president of National Farmers Union.
Former Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Texas.
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D.
Former Rep. Jill Long Thompson, D-Ind.
Comments
2. Watching1 | 12.16.08
In the rush to jump on the environmental bandwagon, keep in mind that it is going to cost a lot to develop and build the “green energy” producers. At the same time, Obama has indicate he is willing to get on board with the Kyoto Accord and the UN in dealing with what the team he is selecting is backing (environmental experts need work to do). Whether or not global warming is due to green house gases is still up for debate. There are scientist lined up on both sides. Some of these scientist say that there are many other natural cycles that can impact this including solar activity, the reversal of the magnetic poles heating the globe, water currents and other very complex mechanisms. Everyone can agree that cleaning the environment is an extremely important goal. To date the arguments from Bush have been over how to achive it and how it is going to be paid for.
Signing on to the Kyoto Accord will have a heavy price for the US. China and India are likely not to sign. A significant amount of the carbon produced in the US is related to farming (fuel, manure, production of fertilizers). The US feeds a good part of the world. The cost impact these accords will have on farming is not insignificant. So we will be paying for the privilege to feed the world, at the same time sending them money for carbon credits. There were reasons Bush and others have not simply jumped on board.
It will be interesting to see how far everyone is willing to dig in their pockets for this. Obama is saying he wants a one trillion dollar economic stimulus, there will be a bail-out of Obama’s friends at the unions coming shortly, perhaps he will bring his global poverty initiative back for another trillion. It’s only money.
California is leading the way, and there will be a waive of business leaving the State because of it. If the US passes these same standards companies will simply move production to China or India. With a 15 billion dollar deficit in California there must be money in the bail-out for the States. The cost of electricity will likely increase significantly in California as a result of this.
Consumers will find out the price of “green” and why that has been the real stumblinig block on these issues.
3. Marie Devine, Kansas City, MO, USA | 12.16.08
There is no real change in Obama’s choices for cabinet positions. He “formally named the rest of his team today: physics Nobel laureate Dr. Steven Chu as his Energy Secretary; Lisa Jackson as his Environmental Protection Agency Administrator; Nancy Sutley as his chair of the Council on Environmental Quality; and Carol Browner as assistant to the president for Energy and Climate Change, a new post.”
Our solutions are found in the scriptures and are prophecy written on the United Nations’ building:
Isaiah 2:4: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and they shall learn war no more.”
If we turned from our employment lifestyle that causes stress, pollution, disease and high health care costs, global warming, wars, energy crisis, food crisis, reoccurring financial crises, crime and social security insufficiencies, we would not need a global warming policy and energy and climate change green jobs and expensive projects to employ the people. We would not need the president-elect’s other promises of universal health care and social services like welfare and pre-kindergarten child care.
The “New Deal” of past recessions caused the lifestyle that has created our world problems. There is no wisdom in getting deeply into debt to create more of a destructive and dangerous lifestyle. We do not need more science or a new post; we need understanding that we are going the wrong way and we need real change to a retirement lifestyle where we create a garden paradise with all our needs met in beauty and abundance in our neighborhood. We need true freedom and independence that is fair and available to all people. We need an environment that does not break down and need to be repaired with massive amounts of tax money. We need the change we expected, something that would make our lives easier.
Barack Obama will not prosper us by borrowing billion of dollars as an economic stimulus packages for new forms of energy for climate protection or businesses. It would still take polluting energy to create them. We will still be working away from families, buying insurance for autos, health and homes, buying energy from domestic suppliers, dealing with daily stress of child care, college tuition, sons in military, and conflicts over abortion, marriages, and religion. There is no change in Barack Obama’s energy and climate-environment team.
4. John J. Tormey III, Esq. | 12.16.08
Dear President-Elect Obama:
“Quiet Rockland” is an organization based in Pearl River, New York that has been fighting the “Bobby” Sturgell FAA and Mary Peters USDOT for the past year-and-a-half. Our organization acts consonant with the interests of thousands of citizens in Rockland County, NY and elsewhere: 47,000 in the Town Of Orangetown, NY; 300,000 in Rockland County, NY; and 30,000,000 in the Northeast.
1. Quiet Rockland asks that, once sworn-in, you please cause your re-configured USDOT and FAA to immediately withdraw the US$53,500,000+ failed boondoggle of the prior administration known as the “NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign”. It never made sense to put between 200-600 new jumbo-jets per day over densely-populated and minority-laden neighborhoods in Rockland County. We need environmental justice, a restoration of sensibility, and peace. We need cancellation of the Sturgell/Peters Airspace Redesign.
2. The American people including Quiet Rockland call for your Administration to please treat and pay all Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) and Aviation Inspectors fairly; protect them from threat and harm; and listen to them. NATCA needs a real contract. The ATCS and Inspectors are the true aviation professionals. Their input is vital to the future of American aviation safety, and they have suffered to a wholly-unacceptable degree during the failed “Bobby” Sturgell FAA regime.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Leave a Comment
We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The comments feature is a forum to discuss the ideas in our stories. Constructive debate - even pointed disagreement - is welcome, but personal attacks on other commenters are not, and will not be published.
Tip: Do not write a novel. Keep it short. We will not publish lengthy comments. Come up with your own statements. This is not a place to cut and paste an email you received. If we recognize it as such, we won't post it.
Please do not post any comments that are commercial in nature or that violate copyrights.
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
1. Sherry | 12.15.08
I hope we get on with the promises we made during the campaign to make America Energy Independnet. It would cost the equivalent of 60 cents per gallon to charge and drive an electric car. The elec to charge the car could be generated by wind or solar partially or in whole. If all gasoline cars, trucks, and suv’s instead had plug-in electric drivetrains, the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of North Dakota. Jeff Wilson has a fascinating article on his Better Place Blog called “How Much Electricity Does It Take To Replace Gasoline?” you can read it at… http://planet.betterplace.com/profiles/blogs/how-much-electricity-does-it