President-elect Barack Obama will name Nobel Prize-winner Steve Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to head the Department of Energy, a person close to the presidential transition said.
Lisa Jackson, former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and current chief of staff to New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, is Obama’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, the person said.
The president-elect is in the final stages of putting together his energy team. Former EPA chief Carol Browner is his likely pick for a newly created position overseeing energy, climate and environmental issues, Democratic aides said. Nancy Sutley, an energy official for the city of Los Angeles, is Obama’s choice to head his White House Council on Environmental Quality, according to one aide.
Former Senator Tom Daschle also is set to be named by Obama tomorrow as his pick for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Democratic officials said.
Obama’s decision to nominate Chu, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics, to head the energy department reflects the president-elect’s pledge to put a greater emphasis on science when crafting energy policies aimed at transforming the U.S. economy into one fueled primarily by low-carbon power sources.
Focus on Science
“He certainly needs somebody who can focus on the science and energy policies and I can’t think of a better guy than Steve,” said Mike Lubell, a physics professor at the City College of New York, who has known Chu for 30 years.
Since taking over as director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in August 2004, Chu has pushed the lab to focus on climate change and on developing new carbon-neutral sources of energy, said Robert J. Birgeneau, the chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley.
“He has been relentless about addressing the technical challenges of renewable energy in a deep way,” said Birgeneau, who has known Chu for three decades since the two men worked at Bell Laboratories in the 1970s. “We will now have an energy policy that can mean the U.S. will have a chance of obtaining energy self-sufficiency through new technology.”
Lynn Yarris, a spokeswoman for Chu, declined to comment.
Chu played a leading role in Berkeley being selected by BP Plc as the home of a $500 million research program to develop a new generation of renewable fuels.
Alternative Energy
Obama has pledged to spend $150 billion over 10 years to promote wind, solar, biomass and other renewable energy sources. The department was formed in 1977, and has a $23 billion budget.
Jackson, Obama’s choice to head the EPA, has been helping to lead Obama’s transition group overseeing the federal agency. Some environmental groups have been critical of her.
The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a non-profit alliance of local, state and federal employees, say Jackson’s record in New Jersey should “disqualify” her from running EPA.
They claim Jackson allowed politics to sway her policy decisions and that she suppressed scientific data.
Jackson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Obama is expected to name his main energy and environmental candidates this week or next, said the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement. Cabinet selections are subject to confirmation by the Senate.
