December 15, 2008 - President-elect Barack Obama formally announced his senior energy and environmental advisers December 15, selecting officials who have urged America to take a tougher regulatory line towards oil companies, electric utilities and other energy-intensive industries.
Speaking at a press conference in Chicago, Obama named Carol Browner, a Washington attorney who ran the Environmental Protection Agency under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, as his White House coordinator of energy and climate policy.
Such a position has never before existed in the federal government, reflecting Obama's desire to manage energy and environmental policymaking across dozens of departments and agencies within his administration.
"For over three decades, we've listened to a growing chorus of warnings about our energy dependence," Obama said. "Yet our dependence on foreign oil has only grown, even as the world's resources are disappearing."
Browner, like Obama, is a staunch advocate for capping greenhouse gas emissions from a broad swath of US industries.
Environmental groups lauded Obama for putting Browner in charge of the new office to coordinate energy and environmental policy.
"By creating this new position, President-elect Obama has reinforced his position that clean energy and climate protection are keys to spurring economic recovery while safeguarding the planet," said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
But some Republican lawmakers scoffed at Obama's move. Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a vocal global-warming skeptic who frequently clashed with Browner during the Clinton years, called her a "proud liberal" who will "drive-up energy costs on families and put thousands of Americans out of jobs."
Obama also tapped Steven Chu, a Nobel-prize-winning physicist, as his energy secretary.
Chu is the director of the Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. Obama said Chu's appointment as DOE secretary "should send a signal to all that my administration will value science, we will make decisions based on the facts, and we understand that the facts demand bold action."
Chu has been outspoken about the potential impacts of global climate change.
Robert Birgeneau, a colleague of Chu's who serves as the chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley, said he expects Chu to make a big impact at DOE.
"Steve Chu has been relentless about addressing the technical challenges of renewable energy in a deep way," Birgeneau said. "We will now have an energy policy that can mean the US will have a chance of obtaining energy self-sufficiency through new technology."
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman praised Chu's selection, saying the lab chief "understands the significance of our energy and environmental challenges, and more importantly, understands the technical solutions necessary to address them."
Obama also named Lisa Jackson, a former director of the New Jersey Department of Environment Protection, to be his EPA administrator.
During her tenure at New Jersey's environmental office, Jackson spearheaded the passage of one of the most aggressive state climate-change bills in the country.
She also shepherded the Garden State through its membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a program in which 10 northeast states are cooperating to reduce carbon emissions from power plants.
Obama also announced that he would nominate Nancy Sutley, a deputy Los Angeles mayor responsible for greening the country's second-largest city, to chair the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Obama said that he will announce his nomination for interior secretary, another key energy post, later the week ending December 19.
Next page: It's official: Obama drops reference to windfall profits tax from web site
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