Obama, Aides Consider Appointing Energy 'Czar'
By STEPHEN POWER and NEIL KING JR.
WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama and his aides are close to naming a slate of appointees to run the departments of Interior and Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency amid debate on whether to establish a White House-level post to coordinate policies on climate change and dependence on Middle East oil.
The wrangle over the creation of a high-level energy council or climate "czar" could determine which appointees will run the three agencies, which have the biggest impact on energy and climate policy.
It also reflects the bureaucratic challenge some of Mr. Obama's advisers see in managing the many federal agencies that have a hand in energy policy, including the Transportation Department, which sets vehicle fuel-economy standards; the Interior Department; which controls access to oil and natural gas on federal land; and the EPA, which regulates air quality.
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Various policy centers -- including one led by John Podesta, who heads the Obama transition effort -- have advocated the creation of an energy council led by a high-level adviser within the White House. Some on the transition team have expressed reservations about the idea, people familiar with the matter said.
People familiar with the selection process said Mr. Obama's top aides plan to meet in Chicago this weekend to help the president-elect choose nominees for the top energy and environmental posts, and that an announcement could come as early Tuesday. A spokesman for the Obama transition team declined to comment Friday.
Among the leading candidates to run the EPA are Lisa Jackson, a former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection who is now chief of staff to New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine; and Mary Nichols, chairman of the California Air Resources Board, people close to the selection process said.
The EPA administrator's influence on energy policy is expected to grow both as a result of Mr. Obama's support for regulating greenhouse-gas emissions and a 2007 Supreme Court decision that found the Clean Air Act authorizes the agency to regulate such emissions if it determines they cause or contribute to air pollution that endangers public health or welfare.
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