Obama confirms energy and environment team: Chu as Energy Secretary; Jackson to EPA; Browner as policy chief; Sutley to head environmental council

In Washington, President-elect Barack Obama formally nominated Nobel Laureate Dr. Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy. Chu is one of the country’s most distinguished scientists and shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He has been the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since August 2004.

Dr. Chu is the author of ‘Lighting the Way: Toward A Sustainable Energy Future’, published by 13 National Science Academies, outlining a plan to avert a looming energy crisis. The plan calls for implementation of biofuels and carbon-negative bioenergy, and for the energy needs of the world’s 2 billion poorest people to be considered first. Dr. Chu was profiled in Biofuels Digest last February.

He was instrumental in forging the partnership between Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Sandia National Laboratories, the University of California-Davis, and the Carnegie Institution of Science,  that resulted in the formation of the Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBEI).

President-elect Obama also named the other members of the energy and environment team yesterday. As EPA Administrator, he nominated  Lisa Jackson as EPA administrator. Jackson, who served 20 years at EPA and was formerly New Jersey’s environmental protection commissioner before becoming New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s chief of staff. Los Angeles deputy mayor Nancy Sutley was named to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality, while Carol Browner was chosen to head a new White House coordinating council on energy, climate and environmental policy. Browner is a former EPA administrator.

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