Obama breaks with Bush oil bosses and puts environment at top of agenda

• Nobel scientist designated US energy secretary• New 'climate tsarina' will coordinate agencies
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
The Guardian, Tuesday 16 December 2008

US president-elect Barack Obama yesterday announced a physics Nobel laureate as the incoming secretary of state for energy, stressing the need to develop new energy sources Link to this video
Barack Obama made his most decisive break with the past eight years of George Bush yesterday, claiming the creation of a new energy economy for the US as the defining issue of his presidency and naming a Nobel science laureate and a supporter of Al Gore to his cabinet.
The president-elect turned the roll-out of his new energy and environment team, made at a press conference in Chicago, into a chance to restate his commitment towards putting energy reform at the centre of his economic plan.
"We have heard president after president promising to chart a new course," he said. "This time has to be different."
His choice of the physicist Steve Chu as his energy secretary and the veteran regulator Carol Browner for the newly created White House post of "climate tsarina" received almost unanimously positive response from environmentalists. The professional credentials of both were seen as a sign of Obama's determination to change America's energy mix and deal with climate change.
Gene Karpinski, the head of the League of Conservation Voters, hailed Browner and Chu as "a green dream team".
Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, said: "We can expect some strong initiatives reflecting the sense of seriousness and the urgency of doing something about climate change."
Chu, 60, won his Nobel prize in 1997 and is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is a committed advocate for action on climate change.
Obama held up Chu's appointment as a sign of his determination to break with the Bush administration, which recruited oil industry executives to the energy department and censored government scientific reports on global warming. The environmental protection agency saw its funding and powers drastically reduced.
"His appointment should signal to all that my administration will value science," he said. "We will make decisions based on facts."
But despite Chu's title, the greater responsibility for dealing with issues of energy and climate change falls to Browner, who will coordinate the different government agencies that deal with energy policy.
Obama's decision to create a new co-ordinating post for her was seen as a further sign of his seriousness on climate change. Reid Detchon, director of the Energy Future Coalition, called the move "visionary and overdue".
Browner, who headed the environmental protection agency under Bill Clinton, has worked with Gore, and called climate change "the greatest challenge ever faced". She is expected to pick up on her efforts to give the EPA the authority to regulate the carbon emissions that cause climate change. That initiative was blocked by the Bush administration. She has also supported California's efforts to reduce car emissions at a faster pace than under federal law.
Lisa Jackson, a chemical engineer and former environmental policy official from New Jersey, is to head the EPA, which regulates air quality. Nancy Sutley, an environmental officer in California, becomes head of the president's Council on Environmental Quality.
Obama's economic team has been criticised for being too strongly allied with Wall Street, but he has given out repeated signals that he intends to move ahead with legislation to deal with climate change. He reaffirmed that commitment yesterday, saying there was still an urgent need to develop alternative energy sources, despite the recent drop in oil prices and the economic crisis.
However, there were some cautionary notes sounded about Obama's choices yesterday. Chu, despite his sterling reputation as scientist, has little experience of politics. There were also reports that Browner would be competing for influence against other presidential advisers, such as General Jim Jones, Obama's national security adviser, and Lawrence Summers, his economic adviser.