The Dream Green Team
By Don G. Briggs, President – LOGA (Louisiana Oil & Gas Association)

Conservation groups, and environmental activist around the country had smiles on their faces this week when President-elect Barrack Obama announced the appointments of what many believe to be “the dream green team”. 

“This is clearly a “green dream team,” said Gene Karpinski, head of the League of Conservation Voters.   “You see this smile on my Face?  It’ not going away. Everyone is really excited by this,” said Paul Woods, CEO of Algenol, a biofuel start-up company.

So who are these folks who have conservationist gleaming from ear to ear? For starters, Carol Browner is the new “Energy Czar”, a new position as a special assistant to President-elect Obama.  Browners’ job will be to coordinate energy and climate change policy.  If you don’t remember Carol Browner, she was the head of the EPA during the Clinton administration.

Regardless of your politics Browner made a name for herself, and her appointment excited some but drew fire from others.  “Carol Browner is a bad choice,” said Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute and conservative think tank.  “She worked for Al Gore and shares many of his wildest opinions.”

Nancy Sutley is the newly appointed White House Council on Environmental Quality.  Sutley served under Browner in the Clinton Administration as Browner’s special assistant.  She is credited for taking on air pollution in the Port of Los Angeles while serving as the city’s deputy mayor for energy and environment.

Lisa Jackson has been tapped as EPA Director.  She is considered by some to be a multiculturalists, capable of educating and bringing both sides to the table.  Jackson is currently New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s chief of staff and will be the first African-American to be chief of the EPA.

President-elect Obama stepped out of the box when he appointed scientist Steve Chu, Secretary of Energy.  Chu is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.  He certainly is the least political of the “green dream team” and will have some life changes in the Washington political arena.  Chu brings a great deal of credibility to the administration and is considered one of the top scientists in the world.

The last of the member “green dream team” is the Senator from Colorado, Ken Salazar, tapped to be the Secretary of the Department of Interior.  Salazar is considered to be a moderate democrat and comes from a ranching background.  The Interior Department oversees all federal lands and waters and has been under fire in the past years for corruption in dealing with federal leases.

Obama has maintained a theme with all of his nominations, one that will likely take shape in the form of regulations and legislation: "To create millions of new green jobs, to free our nation from its dependence on oil and help preserve this planet for our children," said President-elect Barack Obama as he outlined his top priorities for the environment and energy policy. "In the end that's not only the responsibility of all Americans, it's our obligation as stewards of God's earth."

His appointments have met both praise and skepticism on both sides of the aisle.  Green Energy, climate change and weaning the US off of foreign oil sources are themes that are pronounced with all of his choices.  Only time will tell what these new appointments will mean to our industry and Louisiana.

Don Briggs

President

Louisiana Oil & Gas Association

Baton Rouge