President-elect Barack Obama will likely announce his energy and environment team this week, according to sources close to the transition.

The announcement probably will come Wednesday or Thursday, and is expected to follow votes in Congress on an auto industry bailout package, the sources said.

Obama is expected to introduce his nominees for Energy secretary, Interior secretary and head of the EPA together, in keeping with a pattern of announcing “teams” for particular issue clusters. He already has named his economics and national security teams.

Also possible is the announcement of a new White House office of energy or climate change, perhaps in the form of a new National Energy Council on par with the National Security Council. The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank which is advising the Obama transition, has recommended the creation of such a council, headed by a White House-level energy or climate czar.

Advocates of the proposal say Obama’s ambitious energy and climate proposals will involve nearly every agency, including Energy, Interior, EPA, Agriculture, Transportation, State, Defense and Labor, and will need one figure to coordinate the effort.

But the creation of that position is still under discussion, say sources close to the transition. One concern, they say, is that the addition of a White House energy office — on top of the creation of the new Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and the expected creation of some form of auto-industry bailout council — could feed “big government” criticisms.

There is at least one option for elevating energy and climate issues within the White House, but without creating a new office: Obama could choose to “super-charge” the existing White House Council on Environmental Quality, which coordinates federal environmental efforts, and had a fairly low profile in the Bush administration.

Speculation on who will fill the top slots runs rampant, and transition sources say many of the final decisions could depend on how those positions fit within the broader Cabinet — and with Obama’s goal of creating a Cabinet diverse in race, gender and geography.

On Monday, it appeared that Lisa Jackson, chief of staff for Democratic New Jersey Gov. John Corzine and the state’s former top environmental official, was close to clinching the nomination to lead the EPA, according to aides. Jackson is also an adviser to Obama’s energy and environment transition team.

The name most commonly mentioned as a new White House energy or climate czar is Carol M. Browner, who headed the EPA during the Clinton administration.

Potential Energy Picks

Among the likely contenders for Energy is Dan Reicher, who runs the Energy and Climate office for the philanthropic arm of Google, and served as assistant secretary of Energy in the Clinton administration.

Another name being mentioned for Energy is Steven Chu, the Nobel prize-winning director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a government lab in California that employs 4,000 people and focuses on renewable and alternative energy. However, the chances of Chu, who is of Chinese descent, may have diminished with Obama’s pick of another Asian-American, retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, as Veterans Affairs secretary.