Obama Announces Energy, Environment Team

President-elect Barack Obama has introduced his energy and
environment team, naming Carol Browner to lead a new council on climate,
environment and energy issues; Steven Chu as energy secretary; Lisa Jackson as
EPA administrator; and Nancy Sutley as head of the White House Council on
Environmental Quality.

Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of National Wildlife Federation, said:

“President-elect Barack Obama reiterated his clean energy
priorities just last week, promising to repower America and redesign how we use
energy—to create jobs as we preserve our planet. Now he's put in place an
experienced team that can get the job done.

“President-elect Obama has demonstrated with this team his
commitment to change the course of America's energy policy;
underscored by the appointment of Carol Browner to head a new council
coordinating White House policy on energy, climate, and environment. Having
served with her on the board of the Alliance for Climate Protection, I can tell
you Carol Browner is an outstanding choice who can make up for eight years of
lost opportunity by lending her proven leadership to usher in a new era of
climate and energy initiatives.

“Especially in light of New Jersey's leadership on strong
targets for carbon emission cuts, Lisa Jackson is exactly what this country and
its precious environment needs in an EPA administrator: a practical, smart and
dedicated individual who has a track record of moving sound environmental and
conservation policies forward that benefit us all. We applaud the new
administration's commitment to restoring protections for America's
wetlands, streams, and floodplains. This will be of particular importance as
global warming continues to impact the resiliency of the natural resources a
strong economy depends on.

“Steven Chu's selection as energy secretary shows the White
House will no longer be a battleground in the war on science. Instead, a Nobel
laureate who's been a strong and powerful voice on the urgent need to confront
global warming will lead our national energy policy. And if there's anyone who
knows climate change must be dealt with on every level—by nations, states, and
localities—it’s Nancy Sutley, who's handled environmental issues from each of
those perspectives.

“President-elect Obama's team knows that the most important
thing America can do in 2009 to galvanize investment in clean energy technology
is to enact a cap-and-invest plan that reduces global warming pollution and
grows clean energy technologies that will recharge our economy. The National
Wildlife Federation looks forward to working with them to help make it happen.”