President-elect Barack Obama has selected the majority of his environmental and natural resources team, according to Democratic officials quoted anonymously by the Associated Press.
Obama has selected Steven Chu for energy secretary, Lisa Jackson for EPA administrator, Carol Browner as energy "czar," and Nancy Sutley as chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, according to sources who said the official announcements would be made in coming weeks.
Undoubtedly the administration is floating these names to see what kind of response they receive. Interior secretary is the other prominent environmental post, for which a name has yet to be released.
Chu is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a former Nobel Prize winner in physics.
Jackson is a former New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection commissioner and currently serves as chief of staff to New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine.
Browner served as EPA chief for eight years under President Clinton and is now the chair of the National Audubon Society. Her position is new and will oversee energy issues as well as environment and climate matters.
Sutley is the deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles and a former EPA official under Clinton.
For more coverage on these selections, follow the link below.
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I think if President Barak Obama was serious about sustainability, he’d create a cabinet level position and a department called “Department of Sustainability”.
This new Department’s new mandate should be to first work with other federal departments move the Federal government towards sustainability in their operations.
Secondly, the department could work complimentary State level positions to help State government operate as a sustainable entity.
As well. the new Department of Sustainability should help companies, non-profits and individuals to function as sustainable entities.
Right now, sustainability is wound up in a myriad of Federal EPA programs.
There is no overall sustainability function for the Federal Government.
So how does the Federal Government expect States, companies and individuals to act in a sustainable way if they don’t offer coherence, focused leadership in this area?