Pres.- elect Obama Chooses an Energy Team
From the Houston Chronicle:
President-elect Barack Obama is expected to nominate Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu to become the nation’s next energy secretary.
Obama also is poised to select Lisa Jackson to head the Environmental Protection Agency, while one-time EPA administrator Carol Browner would serve in the White House as an overall energy “czar.” Jackson worked at the EPA during Browner’s tenure, and is former administrator of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
From U.S. News & World Report:
Obama’s picks are also a dramatic departure from many of his predecessors. The choice of Chu gives a leading scientist rare prominence in the cabinet, while the full slate indicates Obama’s interest in aggressive action on climate change, increased funding for scientific research, and stronger environmental regulation by the federal government.
It is, in other words, an about-face from the Bush administration.
From The National Review’s Corner blog:
One Semi-Cheer for Obama’s Energy Team [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
The Manhattan Institute’s Max Schulz, in commenting on Obama’s Energy and EPA picks, adds:
Obama did make an exceptional pick on the energy front — but he did it three weeks ago and in a different context. On November 22, the president-elect picked Gen. James Jones to serve as national-security adviser.
From former Bush EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman on MSNBC:
Former New Jersey governor and head of the EPA Christie Todd Whitman said President-elect Obama’s choice to head up the EPA, Lisa Jackson, will face an agency that’s “pretty deep in the hole.”
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