Lisa Jackson
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L.A. Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley may head up Obama’s Council on Environmental Quality
Nancy Sutley. 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 […]
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Politico claims N.J. DEP commissioner Lisa Jackson in line to head EPA
For what it’s worth, Politico is reporting that Lisa Jackson is probably going to be Obama’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency. “It seems like it’s pretty close to a done deal. She’ll be a very strong candidate,” says an anonymous Democratic Senate aide. Jackson is currently serving on Obama’s transition team for the […]
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California’s Mary Nichols doubts reports that Obama has settled on EPA pick
Mary Nichols, head of California’s powerful Air Resources Board, says she doesn’t believe unattributed news reports that she or Lisa Jackson, former commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, are (or are not) front-runners to be President-elect Obama’s nominee to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “I don’t believe either of those things, and […]
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Christine Todd Whitman talks about greening the GOP and running the EPA
If Christine Todd Whitman had waited four years to publish her political memoir, she might have had this winter’s timeliest bestseller. The former Environmental Protection Agency administrator and New Jersey governor wrote It’s My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America to urge moderate Republicans, environmentalists included, […]
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Obama’s enviro and energy teams heavy on vets of 42nd prez’s administration
Obama is tapping many Clintonites for his transition team. The Obama-Biden transition announced the names of the Agency Review Team leads, who will be charged with completing “a thorough review of key departments, agencies and commissions of the United States government, as well as the White House, to provide the President-elect, Vice President-elect, and key […]
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The green scoop on Obama’s Cabinet and administration picks and prospects
Lisa Jackson. EPA Administrator: Lisa Jackson (not officially announced) Background on Jackson. Some enviros have been critical of Jackson — get the story. Steven Chu. Secretary of Energy: Steven Chu (not officially announced) Background on Chu. Watch Chu talk about climate change and renewable energy. Carol Browner. Energy Czar: Carol Browner (not officially announced) Background […]
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More speculation, and real news from the Obama transition team
The Obama team has tapped a former high-level Clinton appointee to run the transition efforts for EPA, Interior, Energy, and Agriculture, Greenwire reports. The person picked for the job is David Hayes, who served as deputy secretary at Interior during the Clinton years. Reporting to Hayes will be Robert Sussman, who served as deputy administrator […]
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A roundup of possible Cabinet picks for environment-related positions
The punditocracy is amusing itself by trading rumors about who Obama might tap to fill key leadership posts. Here are names that have been circulated thus far for environment-related positions. Warning: wild speculation to follow. EPA Administrator Robert F. Kennedy Jr., attorney for Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council Mary Nichols, chair of the […]
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The Nation reports on sustainable revitalization of the New Orleans neighborhood
This article by Rebecca Solnit is reprinted from the Sept. 10, 2007 issue of The Nation, released today, which focuses on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, two years later. Solnit is the author of a dozen books, including, most recently, Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics.
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The word "will" comes up constantly in the Lower Ninth Ward now; "We Will Rebuild" is spray-painted onto empty houses; "it will happen," one organizer told me. Will itself may achieve the ambitious objective of bringing this destroyed neighborhood back to life, and for many New Orleanians a ferocious determination seems the only alternative to being overwhelmed and becalmed. But the fate of the neighborhood is still up in the air, from the question of whether enough people can and will make it back to the nagging questions of how viable a city and an ecology they will be part of. The majority of houses in this isolated neighborhood are still empty, though about a tenth of the residents are back, some already living in rehabilitated houses, some camped in stark white FEMA trailers outside, some living elsewhere while getting their houses ready. If you measured the Lower Ninth Ward by will, solidarity and dedication, from both residents and far-flung volunteers and nonprofits, it would be among the best neighborhoods in the United States. If you measured it by infrastructure and probabilities, it looks pretty grim. There are more devastated neighborhoods in New Orleans and neighboring St. Bernard Parish, let alone Mississippi and the Delta, but the Lower Ninth got hit hard by Katrina. Its uncertain fate has come to be an indicator for the future of New Orleans and the fate of its African-American majority.