Highlight of the Week
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.”

White House Drops Effort To Relax Pollution Limits

The Bush administration has announced it is abandoning its pursuit of two proposed regulations that would relax air-pollution standards for power plants.  This ends the pursuit of one of the last remaining goals of Vice President Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force, set up in 2001.

The Environmental Protection Agency sent out a brief statement to reporters announcing that it would not pursue the changes in how power-plant emissions are measured, The New York Times reports. The changes would have allowed increases in hundreds of thousands of tons of pollutants, more specifically smog-inducing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.

“We didn’t want to be faced with putting a midnight regulation in place,” EPA Press Secretary Jonathan Shradar said on the decision to drop the pollution-standard revision. “It was better to leave those incomplete rather than force something through.”

Happening This Week

Congress is on recess this week.

Quote:

“We have the opportunity now to create jobs all across this country in all 50 states to repower America, to redesign how we use energy and think about how we are increasing efficiency to make our economy stronger, make us more safe, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make us competitive for decades to come—even as we save the planet.”

—President-elect Barack Obama, during a meeting with former Vice President Al Gore and Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

Economic Message of the Week
California’s Comprehensive Climate Action Recognizes Green Tech As A Bright Spot

California has adopted the country’s first comprehensive global warming blueprint, calling for a return to 1990 emissions levels by 2020—equaling a 15 percent reduction of current emissions—and for one-third of electricity generation to come from renewables.

“When you look at today's depressed economy, green tech is one of the few bright spots out there,” said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who added that the plan will “unleash the full force of California's innovation and technology for a healthier planet.” 

The California Air Resources Board’s new plan combines a cap-and-trade system with new efficiency regulations, and targets were established for nearly all sectors of the economy-including transportation, buildings, and refineries.

California regulators say the climate action plan could serve as a model for national legislation under President-elect Barack Obama.

From Poznan To Copenhagen: Road Ahead Must Be A Fast Track

Two weeks of negotiations over a new international climate agreement just finished in Poznan, Poland, with a new presidential administration poised to take the reins in less than one month.

National Wildlife Federation President and CEO Larry Schweiger attended, and offered a response:

“Many countries are showing a greater commitment to stop dangerous climate change, but success also depends on the U.S. rejoining global climate negotiations and for us to do our fair share by dramatically cutting global warming pollution at home. We must also help those least responsible for global warming to adapt to the serious consequences.

“President-elect Obama needs to quickly assemble his Copenhagen ‘Dream Team’ and Congress must pass a strong climate bill in 2009, so we will arrive in Copenhagen in a year prepared to sign a new global climate agreement.

“The U.S. is at a pivotal moment. Our economy is on the edge, but so is the climate. We can dig our way out of our economic crisis with a green shovel by developing aggressive solutions to the climate crisis that cut our dependence on oil, transform our energy economy and safeguard our natural resources.

 “The science is crystal clear. We must act now if we are to prevent the worst consequences of global warming to people and nature.

“We can and must devote extraordinary attention in the next 12 months to working at home and together as a global community on solutions that will reduce global warming pollution and jumpstart a new clean energy future, and assist developing countries to cope with climate change.