Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley is expected to be appointed to head President-elect Barack Obama’s White House Council on Environmental Quality, a transition team member told me Wednesday.
Sutley has a long but mixed track record in California on environment and energy policy, according to several people who have worked with and around her for decades. But others are thrilled at the thought of a Californian in the White House. Her selection is seen by many as a “consolation prize” for the Golden State if Obama moves ahead as expected with naming Lisa Jackson of New Jersey to head U.S. EPA, rather than California Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols.
More to come …
UPDATE: Other sources familiar with the selection process said the “consolation prize” theory was inaccurate, as both Nichols and Jackson are still being thoroughly vetted by the FBI as active contenders to head up EPA. In Nichols’ case, that is taking awhile because she has written voluminously on environmental issues and regulations, one source said. Obama transition staff had no comment.
