Emphasizing the important role of science and the link between economic recovery and sustainable environmental policies, President-elect Barack Obama named leading members of his new environmental team Dec. 15.
"There is not a contradiction between economic growth and sound environmental practices," Obama told reporters Monday in Chicago. He linked new investments in job creation to his projected environmental policies: re-fitting public buildings with green technology and investments in alternative energy sources and fuels that create jobs here.
Obama named Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu to head the Department of Energy. The former head of the Department of Energy's Berkeley National Laboratory, Chu is a well-known advocate of alternative fuels and energy sources.
In sharp contrast to the Bush administration, Obama stated that Chu's "appointment should send a signal to all that my administration will value science, we will make decisions based on the facts, and we understand that the facts demand bold action."
The Bush administration has been strongly criticized for ignoring scientific warnings about global warming and health issues, for using political appointees to manipulate scientific reports to reflect the administration's ideological positions on science issues, and for gutting health and environmental oversight in favor of corporate interests with ties to the administration.
In an interview earlier this month before receiving the Obama Transition Team nod, Chu told reporters that the Department of Energy "will provide many of the solutions that the world will need [to address climate and environmental challenges]."
"The pursuit of a new energy economy," Obama noted in his statement, "requires a sustained, all-hands-on-deck effort because the foundation of our energy independence is right here, in America – in the power of wind and solar; in new crops and new technologies; in the innovation of our scientists and entrepreneurs, and the dedication and skill of our workforce."
Obama named former New Jersey Commissioner for Environmental Protection Lisa Jackson to head the Environmental Protection Agency. He appointed former Clinton administration EPA chief Carol Browner as "Energy Czar," a new position in the White House. Nancy Sutley, a former Los Angeles deputy mayor on environmental policies, will chair Obama's Council on Environmental Quality.
Obama is expected to named Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) as Interior Secretary later this week.
