Last month, the U.K. government grouped energy and environmental policy under a single department. Last week, the Canadian government put the economy, environment, and energy security together under a single ministry.
This reflects growing realization in the developed world that environmental policy is no longer an add-on, no longer an altruistic affair to be addressed when other priorities are taken care of. Our energy security is our environmental security is our economic security.
My question: What would it look like if Obama did something similar?
Looking through the list of U.S. cabinet positions, it strikes me that responsibility for climate change-related policy is spread wide and thin: Secretary of State (international treaties), Defense, Interior, Agriculture, HUD, Transportation, and Energy.
Possibilities:
- Elevate EPA to cabinet level; put it in charge of climate policy.
- Create a cabinet-level Secretary of Climate.
- Change the mandate, and raise the budget and profile, of the DOE.
- Per Hillary Clinton’s plan, create a National Energy Council modeled on the National Security Council, to coordinate climate/energy policy across departments.
- Appoint some kind of czar. Everybody loves a czar.
What do y’all think? What’s the best way to rationalize climate/energy policy in the U.S. at an bureaucratic level?
