Transition

Obama's Green Team

Nobel physicist to head Energy Dept.

Obama announced his energy team yesterday, nominating Nobel physicist Steven Chu to head the Department of Energy, former-EPA administrator Carol Brower to a new White House position overseeing environmental, energy, and climate policies, and Lisa P. Jackson, chief of staff to New Jersey Governor John Corzine, to head the EPA. Marc Ambinder notes that Chu is "untainted by Washington's caution on climate change" and "the left loves him." There is a wider picture showing Obama is changing the way the White House monitors government departments. Whereas Bower's duties may have traditionally gone to a domestic policy adviser, Ambinder notes, Obama has divided domestic issues between environment, to Bower, health care, to Tom Daschle, and the economy, to Larry Summers. "These positions will probably become equivalent in function to their respective policy areas as national security adviser's role in national security."