WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama will tap Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu as his Energy secretary and former New Jersey environmental protection commissioner Lisa Jackson as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a senior Democrat said Wednesday.
In addition, Carol Browner, a former EPA administrator, will serve as a high-level coordinator on energy issues, reporting to the president.
The three incoming officials will help form the backbone of a team responsible for carrying out what Obama has repeatedly indicated will be an ambitious environmental agenda. They will be joined by Nancy Sutley, the Los Angeles deputy mayor whom Obama plans to name as the head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and a still-to-be-named Interior secretary.
The three newly designated officials bring experience working on climate change. Chu is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a government research lab in California that under his tenure has focused on alternative energy research and has pushed efforts to boost energy efficiency in buildings.
The son of Chinese immigrants, Chu won the Nobel Prize for "development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light."
Jackson worked for 16 years at the EPA before joining New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection, which she was chosen to run in 2006. She also served on the board of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade effort among Northeastern states.
After Obama won the presidential election last month, he chose Jackson to advise him on energy and natural resource issues during the transition period.
Browner headed the EPA under President Clinton from 1993 to 2001, making her the agency's longest-serving director. She is a principal at the Albright Group, an investment advisory firm that focuses on emerging markets, and is leading Obama's energy and environment transition team. She also sits on the boards of the National Audubon Society and the Alliance for Climate Protection, among other environmental groups.
Environmentalists praised Obama's choices and said they underscored his commitment to fast action on renewable fuel development and carbon emissions reduction.
"These are . . . wins for the environment," said Frances Beinecke, president of the National Resources Defense Council. She said the creation of Browner's position "clearly demonstrates that leadership is going to come from the White House" on alternative energy.
