Obama names environment, energy team

Thu., Dec. 11, 2008

By LIZ SIDOTI and DINA CAPPIELLO Associated Press

At a glance

Barack Obama’s environment and natural resources team:

Steven Chu, secretary of energy. Chu was one of three scientists who shared the Nobel prize for physics in 1997 for work in cooling and trapping atoms with laser light. He’s a professor of physics and molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and has been the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 2004, where he has pushed for research into alternative energy as a way to combat global warming.

Carol Browner, energy “czar.” Browner served as EPA chief for eight years under Clinton. She is now chair of the National Audubon Society and on the boards of several other environmental groups, Browner has been leading the Obama transition’s working group on energy and environment.

Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator. Jackson is a former New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection commissioner who worked at the federal agency for 16 years, including under Browner when she was Bill Clinton’s EPA chief. Jackson is a co-chairman of Obama’s EPA transition team, and currently serves as chief of staff to New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine.

Nancy Sutley, head of White House Council on Environmental Quality. Sutley is deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles and the mayor’s representative on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. She was an EPA official during the Clinton administration, including being a special assistant to the EPA administrator in Washington. She is the first prominent gay to earn a senior role in Obama’s new administration.

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama intends to round out his environmental and natural resources team with a Nobel prize-winning physicist and three former Environmental Protection Agency officials from the Clinton administration.

The president-elect has selected Steven Chu for energy secretary, Lisa Jackson for EPA administrator, Carol Browner as his energy “czar,” and Nancy Sutley to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Democratic officials with knowledge of the decisions said Wednesday.

Obama plans to name the four to the posts in the coming weeks, barring unforeseen developments.

Still unclear is whom Obama will tap for interior secretary.

Officials close to the transition said support for John Berry, the director of the National Zoo and a former assistant secretary at the Interior Department, was growing. But these officials also said Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva and California Rep. Mike Thompson were still in the running.

The Democratic officials who disclosed the selections spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal names that have not been made public.

Among these posts, Browner’s stands out because it’s a new White House position.

She is expected to coordinate the various agencies that play a role in energy and environmental policy, especially on issues such as climate change that don’t fit nicely in the silos of the federal government. Those agencies could include the EPA and the Transportation, Energy and Interior departments.

Obama scheduled a news conference today in Chicago to name former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle as his secretary of health and human services. That choice has been known for some time.

On Wednesday, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who has been mentioned as a possible labor secretary, was in Washington meeting with Obama’s transition team. Her spokeswoman, Liz Boyd, would say only that the governor discussed the president-elect’s economic stimulus plan.

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