This chart supplies information on the Obama administration's nominees for the following:
Chart compiled by E&E reporters Christa Marshall, Jessica Leber, Lauren Morello and Evan Lehmann.
| ENERGY TEAM | ||
| Position | Background | Climate Connection |
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Assistant to the president for energy and climate change: Carol Browner |
Principal at the Albright Group, long-serving EPA administrator under President Bill Clinton. Has been an advocate for restoring scientific analysis to EPA decision-making. In 2008 congressional testimony, she laid out the roles that the U.S. Treasury and EPA should play in a potential cap-and-trade system. | In her newly created position, Browner will have the challenging task of trying to coordinate the climate policies of multiple federal agencies, ranging from the Transportation Department to the Forest Service. She also will have to balance the requests of Obama’s economic and national security teams. Her deputy will be Heather Zichal, a former legislative director to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). |
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White House Council on Environmental Quality: Nancy Sutley |
Currently Los Angeles' deputy mayor for energy and environment, she served previously as Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' energy adviser and on the state's Water Resources Control Board. During the Clinton administration, she was an adviser to EPA's Region 9 office and also served as an assistant to former EPA head Carol Browner. | Will work closely with the president on all climate policy. With the number of agencies involved in climate decisions, CEQ's role as a coordinator may take on increased importance, even though in recent years the office's staffing and funding has been cut. In ensuring that federal agencies comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, the office can help define how agencies address climate change in their environmental reviews. |
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U.S. EPA: Lisa Jackson |
As head of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection from 2006 to 2008, Jackson helped the state pass mandatory greenhouse gas reduction laws and become an alternative energy leader. She also sat on the executive board of the Northeastern states' Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade program. A chemical engineer, Jackson worked for 16 years at U.S. EPA, mostly in hazardous waste cleanup and enforcement roles, before joining the DEP in 2002. | At EPA, Jackson will be at the fulcrum of the administration's efforts to speed the pace on addressing climate change. Quickly, she will be expected to decide whether to reverse a decision preventing California and others from regulating tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions and whether to pursue climate regulations under the Clean Air Act, as per a 2007 Supreme Court decision and in the absence of congressional legislation. She also will be pivotal in making a final deadline to build a greenhouse gas reporting system. In the longer term, EPA will have the key role in implementing any future cap-and-trade legislation, provisions of a future international treaty and the nation's renewable fuel standard, among other roles. |
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Energy: Steven Chu |
Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 1997 Nobel Prize winner in Physics. As head of the Berkeley lab, he pressed his scientific team to focus on climate change and investigate new, carbon-free sources of energy. He has been an advocate for creating a new research entity within the Energy Department modeled after the Defense Department's research arm. | Multiple Energy Department offices intersect with climate change, including the Office of Science and the Office of Fossil Energy. He will be a major player in overseeing the federal government's efforts on technology research, including for carbon capture and sequestration on coal-fired power plants and a potential revamp of the electrical grid. Through existing and planned energy efficiency programs, the department also will be implementing many of Obama's proposals to retrofit buildings, which are responsible for almost half of domestic greenhouse gas emissions. |
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Interior: Ken Salazar |
Democratic senator from Colorado since 2004; serves on the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. A longtime farmer and former director of Colorado's Department of Natural Resources. On Capitol Hill, Salazar was outspoken about the impacts of climate change on the Western United States, including forest devastation from bark beetles. He sponsored bills or amendments to reduce bureaucratic barriers to clean energy technology, allow farmers and ranchers to be rewarded for using their lands to store carbon and conduct research in geological formations for greenhouse gas storage. He voted no, however, on an amendment calling for global warming to be considered in Army Corps of Engineers decisions. | The Interior Department just released draft reports from its Cimate Change Task Force, highlighting issues he will face as the chief manager of one-fifth of the nation's land.He will be key in making decisions such as whether the federal government speeds up applications to build solar farms in the Southwest and considers climate change in water-planning decisions at the Bureau of Reclamation. He also will have jurisdiction over endangered species, climate-change research at the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Indian reservations, which are projected to experience some of the worst impacts of global warming. |
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Agriculture: Tom Vilsack |
A former two-term governor of Iowa, he is widely viewed as a political centrist. He ran briefly for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. As governor, he was a strong supporter of renewable energy development, ethanol and other biofuels. He co-chaired a Council on Foreign Relations climate change task force that recommended a cap-and-trade system, and, during his brief presidential run, called for major emissions cuts. | USDA plays an increasing role in setting energy policy and, through this year's farm bill, supports a wide array of research and development programs for advanced renewable fuels. Many are looking for the agency to develop carbon offset programs for farmers and to shore up the Conservation Reserve Program, which sequesters large sums of carbon but has shrunk in recent years. The Forest Service, which is part of USDA, must manage forest lands in the face of increasing wildfires due to climate change. |
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Transportation: Ray LaHood |
If confirmed, he would be the second Republican in Obama's cabinet, along with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Since 1994, he has served as an Illinois congressman in the House of Representatives, where he developed a close relationship with Rahm Emanuel, Obama's designated chief of staff. He was one of only 91 House Republicans to vote for the "Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act," which would promote the use of alternative fuels in public transportation. He also broke with GOP ranks in backing tightened fuel efficiency standards on vehicles. His lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters, however, is only 27 percent because of his votes against green building standards and renewable energy initiatives. | Transportation is responsible for almost a third of domestic greenhouse gas emissions. LaHood will play a pivotal role in determining how much climate change is integrated into department decisions, as well as implementing mandated fuel-efficiency standards and negotiating details of next year's reauthorization of the multibillion-dollar Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act. He also will oversee the department's Center for Climate Change and Environmental Forecasting. |
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Updated: Dec. 18, 2008. | ||
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| ECONOMIC TEAM | ||
| Position | Background | Climate Connection |
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Treasury: Timothy Geithner |
As the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, he was a key player in crafting the federal bailout of the financial industry. He worked in the Treasury Department under three administrations from 1988 to 2001. | The Treasury Department will oversee bailout funds and the federal stimulus package, which may include energy provisions. Will be involved in managing any future cap-and-trade market, implementing tax incentives for clean energy and energy efficiency and overseeing the clean technology fund, which was designed to help developing nations obtain low-carbon energy technology. |
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National Economic Council director: Lawrence Summers |
Former Treasury secretary and Harvard University president; has been a strong backer of a carbon tax. In columns written last year, he expressed concern that the Kyoto Protocol approach could prove "idealistic and visionary yet impractical." | As the president's senior economic adviser, he will have a voice in how all energy decisions could affect the financial landscape. He also will have to act as a coordinator-in-chief among varying viewpoints, a key role, considering the diversity in thought among some of Obama's energy appointees. |
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Office of Management and Budget director: Peter Orszag |
Director of Congressional Budget Office. In a 2008 editorial in the Washington Post, he advocated putting a price ceiling on allowances in a cap-and-trade system and spoke favorably of a carbon tax. | As overseer of the largest office in the executive office of the president and the one drafting Obama's budget proposals, he will have wide influence over climate policy and appropriations. The agency's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs plays a key role in performing cost-benefit analyses of climate regulations. |
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Chairman of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board: Paul Volcker |
Chairman of the Federal Reserve under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, from 1979 to 1987. Last year, he said the U.S. economy could "go down the drain" within 30 years if carbon taxes are not levied on emissions or petroleum. The United States has been "particularly delinquent" in addressing climate change, he told the American Chamber of Commerce. | He will be a key architect of Obama's sweeping economic stimulus package, which could infuse perhaps $500 billion into transportation projects and other programs meant to spark a "green" economy. Also, his panel will likely play a central role in designing cap-and-trade policies. |
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Labor: Hilda Solis |
Since 2001, Solis represented Los Angeles County in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was the first Hispanic woman to serve in California's State Senate, where she worked from 1994 to 2000. As a member of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming on Capitol Hill, she spoke frequently about the impact of climate change on the poor. She sponsored legislation that would redistribute 35 percent of funds raised from a potential cap-and-trade system to low-income households. She also voiced concerns about the impact of earthquakes on long-term storage of carbon dioxide underground. | At the Department of Labor, Solis will be the overseer of her own "Green Jobs Act," which became law last year. It authorizes up to $125 million to establish national and state job training programs in areas such as construction of energy-efficient buildings and renewable energy projects. She also will bring another California voice to Obama's energy team, joining s appointees to the Council on Environmental Quality and Department of Energy. Already, the state is well represented among the Capitol Hill players with jurisdiction over global warming legislation, including Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the new chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairwoman of the Senate Environmental Public Works Committee. |
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Updated: Dec. 22, 2008. | ||
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| NATIONAL SECURITY TEAM | ||
| Position | Background | Climate Connection |
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Secretary of State: Hillary Rodham Clinton |
Democratic senator from New York since 2001, served on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, former first lady. While campaigning for the presidency, she pledged to negotiate an international climate treaty by 2010 and advocated forming an "E-8" group modeled on the G-8 by linking the International Energy Agency, China and India. | The State Department will play a key role in negotiating an international climate treaty to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol and shepherding that treaty through ratification and implementation. Will direct international aid, including potential funds for adaptation to climate change in developing countries and will take part in global discussions on curbing deforestation. |
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Defense: Robert Gates |
Current secretary of Defense in the Bush administration, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency under President George H.W. Bush. | The 2008 National Defense Authorization Act mandates that the Pentagon "examine the capabilities of the U.S. military to respond to consequences of climate change," a requirement that could include response to national disasters caused by extreme weather. It also could prompt purchasing of more efficient technology and fuels. |
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National security adviser: Retired Marine Gen. James Jones |
President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy, a position that sparked fire from some environmentalists because of the group's call to expand oil exploration, pump money into coal research and avoid regulation of carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. | Obama repeatedly has used the phrase "national security" in describing climate change. Jones will have the president's ear on climate decisions in the international and domestic arenas, including how aggressively the country should wean itself from fossil fuels without putting itself at risk from blackouts or price spikes. |
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Updated: Dec. 15, 2008. | ||
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