Possibility of "climatic czar" in Obama team

U.S. environmental groups see Barack Obama's presidential victory as a chance to undo the Bush legacy on global warming, and one idea they are discussing is the possibility of a White House "climate czar".

Members of the environmental community in and around Washington say such a post could oversee various government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department, to focus on tackling global warming and fostering clean energy to jump-start the flagging economy.

"For the first time, candidates and voters are really connecting the dots between energy, the environment and the economy," said Cathy Duvall, Sierra Club's political director. 

Obama made clear in his acceptance speech on Tuesday that he sees climate change as a critical problem, along with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the wilting economy.

"For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century," the Illinois Democratic senator said in Chicago.

The Bush administration has been accused by environmental groups of politicizing decision-making and failing to act on U.S. government scientists' recommendations to curb greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

Bush accepts that human activities spur climate change, but has rejected mandatory across-the-board limits on global warming emissions, maintaining that this would hurt the U.S. economy. The United States is alone among major industrialized nations in staying out of the carbon-curbing Kyoto Protocol.

There is now a White House Council on Environmental Quality that is the Bush administration's policy voice on climate change, but its staff is small and it might not have the resources to do the wide-ranging job some environmental experts see as necessary.

"What Obama understands is that dealing with the transition to a new energy economy is the centerpiece for getting the economy moving again," said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"I think they need to make clear who's running the show on these issues," Meyer said by telephone. "It's got to be someone who has the trust and ear of the president, someone who's positioned in the White House and someone who has the authority to get the agencies to cooperate on running the agenda. That's a heavy lift."

With such a wide-ranging position still in the discussion stage, speculation has centered on likely candidates for Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

These include Democratic Governors Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Kathleen Sibelius of Kansas, both of whom have pushed to limit greenhouse emissions.

Carol Browner, who is part of the Obama transition team, is a former EPA chief and could conceivably be offered an environment post in the new administration.

Mary Nichols, now head of California's Air Resources Board, has been active in opposing a state ballot proposition that she maintains would increase greenhouse emissions. 

Kathleen McGinty, Pennsylvania's former Environment Secretary,Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute, has also been mentioned as a possible EPA chief.