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Obama to set health goals, tap Daschle

Energy, environmental team likely to assuage leftists

By Tom LoBianco (Contact) | Thursday, December 11, 2008

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President-elect Barack Obama is expected to announce his health care priorities at a news conference Thursday and has tapped an energy and environment team likely to assuage fears from liberals that they had been left in the cold, multiple sources said Wednesday.

Mr. Obama will announce that former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle will serve as his secretary of health and human services at a morning press conference in Chicago, confirming long-standing reports that the former senator from South Dakota and close Obama ally would get the job.

Mr. Obama also has decided on the team to drive his wide-ranging energy and environmental goals, but is not expected to announce the picks this week.

Carol M. Browner is expected to be named Mr. Obama's energy "czar," playing a key role to coordinate energy policy among the federal agencies, according to multiple sources familiar with the transition team's talks.

Steven Chu -- head of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, a Department of Energy laboratory run out of the University of California at Berkeley, and a Nobel-prize winning physicist -- will be tapped for energy secretary, said one industry source and one source familiar the transition team.

"If the left hasn't gotten what it wanted in the national security economic fronts, it looks as though they may get what they want in this," one of the sources said.

The same sources said Lisa Jackson will be appointed Mr. Obama's administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, although the announcement might not come tomorrow.

Mr. Obama tapped Nancy Sutley, a deputy mayor of Los Angeles, to lead his Council on Environmental Quality. Miss Sutley becomes the first homosexual to win a prominent role in the incoming Obama administration.

Energy and environmental priorities are expected to dovetail and be elevated during Mr. Obama's term. Mr. Obama campaigned on a platform to establish a national cap-and-trade program and also pledged to find billions of dollars for "green" jobs in any economic stimulus plan approved in the coming months.

Mrs. Browner, who previously served as EPA administrator, would become the latest in a long list of Clinton administration officials returning to the White House.

Many liberal groups who were widely supportive of Mr. Obama's campaign have grumbled over the past few weeks as he picked members of his economic and security teams viewed as moderate. But the energy and environment picks appear to be a nod to Mr. Obama's left-leaning supporters.

Mrs. Browner has deep ties with the nation's environmentalists, serving on the boards of many politically active environmental groups, including the League of Conservation Voters.

As head of the Berkeley lab, Mr. Chu has focused his team of researchers on biofuels and solar energy development -- both of which would mesh with Democratic leaders' goals to spend heavily on developing renewable and alternative energy sources in the coming years.

Mr. Chu's "experience seems to dovetail perfectly with the president-elect's commitment to bringing new energy technology to market in a timely fashion," said a statement by Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council.

In a meeting with former Vice President Al Gore on Tuesday, Mr. Obama said the evidence of climate change is clear and that "the time for denial is over."

The Department of Energy, which mostly oversees nuclear energy policy and nuclear weapons control, could easily have its scope widened during an Obama term.

Ms. Jackson, who served as New Jersey's Environmental Protection chief for two years, currently works as New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's chief of staff.

The Obama transition team did not immediately return requests for comment Wednesday.