CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
Dec. 15, 2008 – 1:50 p.m.
Energy and Climate Front and Center For Obama Administration
With the creation of a new White House position and the appointment of a Nobel-prize winner to run the Energy Department, President-elect Barack Obama is signaling that energy and climate policy will be elevated to top priorities in his administration.
Obama was expected to announce Monday that Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will be nominated as Energy secretary and New Jersey environmental chief Lisa Jackson will be tapped as EPA administrator.
Carol M. Browner, who led the EPA for eight years during the Clinton administrator and was previously a Senate aide to former Vice President Al Gore, is expected to assume a newly created White House role overseeing climate and energy policy.
Nancy Sutley, an energy and environment aide to the mayor of Los Angeles and a former adviser to Browner at EPA, is expected to be named head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
The selections, as well as creation of the new role for Browner, suggest Obama is likely to press forward without delay on campaign pledges to address global warming and promote a transition to renewable energy and that the White House will play a hands-on role.
“These selections form a green dream team that will help President-elect Obama’s vision for solving our economic and global warming challenges through clean energy become reality,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, in a reaction typical of environmentalists.
While Browner’s role has yet to be clearly spelled out, it is expected to be comparable to the function that the national security director plays in coordinating defense and foreign policy.
Obama has promised to advance a sweeping new energy and climate agenda that would transform the U.S. economy. His key goals include reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, requiring that a quarter of the nation’s electricity be produced from renewable sources such as solar and wind by 2025 and investing $150 billion over the next decade to promote low-carbon energy projects.
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Comments
If we could only remember history. FDR had a better idea than everyone in Washington today and I wish politicians could remember the things he did to get out of the depression of the 30's. My idea is to reinact the CCCs and put the rest of that 700Billion in the peoples pockets by giving them a job. At the same time rebuild our highways and bridges that are falling apart. We need to stall all payments to the banks and the car companies and put the people back to work and put money in their pockets. And with some money to spend WE will buy cars and other products and at the same time spend our way out of this mess. Polititions are so worried about BIG buisness & Banks but not the people who work for them. Then you can start working on the real problem (the jobs lost to other countries)
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