Climate change for DoE, EPA, as new appointments are leaked to the press

President-elect Obama met with former Vice-President Al Gore and Vice President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday, just before Gore flew off for the final few days of climate talks in Poznan, Poland. “All three of us are in agreement that the time for delay is over, the time for denial is over,” said Obama. “This is a matter of urgency and national security...[but] it is not only a problem, it is also an opportunity,” he added. “We have the opportunity now to create jobs all across this country in all 50 states to re-power America, to redesign how we use energy and think about how we are increasing efficiency to make our economy stronger, make us more safe, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make us competitive for decades to come -- even as we save the planet.”

The urgency came across clearly when the next day the Obama transition team all but announced Steven Chu’s appointment as Department of Energy secretary through selective leaking to the press (see yesterday’s posting ). The news was widely praised by members of the physics community . Chu is reported in the Wall Street Journal as raising doubts on the viability of clean coal technology and carbon dioxide sequestration. On nuclear power, Chu said, “The waste and proliferation issues still haven’t been completely solved.” The Washington Post reports that “Chu’s views on climate change would be among the most forceful ever held by a cabinet member.”

Less coverage has been given to Lisa Jackson , a former environmental policy official in New Jersey, has been picked to head the Environmental Protection Agency and Carol Browner, who led the EPA under President Clinton, will fill a new White House “energy czar” role. Both officials have been years working as regulators and it is that experience that Obama hopes to tap into says David A. Fahrenthold of the Washington Post . In the New York Times John M. Broader wonders how much authority Browner will wield as s White House coordinator of energy and climate policy.

Jonathan Stein in Mother Jones magazine writes that a new GAO report states that Obama will inherit a federal government rife with waste, fraud, and mismanagement:

“The Department of Homeland Security and Department of Agriculture have no plan to work together in the event of a food-borne disease outbreak or terrorist attack. The Department of Defense’s security clearance process takes so long it jeopardizes classified information. The EPA’s chemical risk assessment program is improperly influenced by private industry,” says the report.The cost of manned spaceflight

Tensions between the transition team and NASA administrator Mike Griffin also appears to be rising says the Orlando Sentinel . Griffin is not cooperating and is obstructing efforts by the space transition team to obtain information about the Ares I rocket and Orion capsule that form the heart of the manned space program once the space shuttle retires. The Ares rocket, which ran into technical difficulties earlier this year, is behind schedule and over-budget. The transition team, headed by Lori Garver, had asked the agency to to quantify (1) how much money could be saved by canceling Ares I and (2) what it would cost to accelerate the program. The query about scrapping the program caused consternation.

“According to industry officials, Griffin started calling heads of companies working for NASA, demanding that they either tell the Obama team that they support Constellation or refrain from talking about alternatives,” says the Orlando Sentinel. “The companies, worried that Griffin may remain and somehow punish them if they ignore his wishes, have by and large complied.”

The Washington Post reports this morning that Griffin disputes Orlando Sentinel’s report, but does confirm that Griffin did question whether the Obama transition team had the engineering qualifications to analyze the merits of the different rockets. A new email by Griffin was sent to Orlando Sentinel to refute the charges, and to NASA employees to encourage them to work with the transition team.

“We strongly urge full and free cooperation by companies performing work for NASA,” says Griffin’s email. “I am appalled by any accusations of intimidation, and encourage a free and open exchange of information with the contractor community.”

Climate change for international agreements

While Obama was planning out his energy/environment team, the Pozann talks for laying the framework for extending and replacing the Kyoto Protocol triggered a number of announcements from US states, the European Union and elsewhere over climate change.

The EU has finally agreed to a compromise deal on how to cut carbon emissions reports the Guardian . The scheme involves offering eastern European nations billions of euros to help to tackle climate change and modernize their power-generating industry which mainly relies on coal.

The proposal contains four key laws that will:

• Mandate 20% cut in greenhouse gases from 1990 levels by 2020
• Reduce energy consumption by 20% in Europe in the same timeframe
• Stipulate that 20% of Europe’s energy mix comes from renewable sources.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is currently in charge of the rotating EU presidency aims to get the agreement signed before the end of the year. One of the most controversial sections of the agreement consists of transportation and the auto industry in particular.

Earlier this year the French government commissioned Jean Syrota, the former French energy industry regulator to write a report on all the options for building cleaner, more efficient mass-market cars by 2030 says Paul Betts in the Financial Times . The report was completed in September but has yet to be released to the public. “It concludes that there is not much future in the much vaunted developed of all electric-powered cars,” says Betts. “Instead, it suggests that the traditional combustion engine powered by petrol, diesel, ethanol or new biofuels still offers the most realistic prospect of developing cleaner vehicles. Carbon emissions and fuel consumption could be cut by 30-40 per cent simply by improving the performance and efficiency of traditional engines and limiting the top speed to around 170km/hr.” The American Physical Society’s recent report on energy efficiency reached a similar conclusion.

In California, the California Air Resources Board voted unanimously on Thursday to adopt similar regulations to the EU proposal that aim to reduce California’s CO2 emissions to 1990 levels in under 12 years. The plan includes a ‘cap and trade’ program that formed a major environmental planck of Obama’s campaign. Currently California’s CO2 emissions are 30% above where they were in 1990. An editorial in The Sacramento Bee says that the plan “underestimates the possible costs involved in transforming the state’s modes of transportation, its energy sources and its industries, according to several economists who peer-reviewed the document.”

The announcements could be too late to save the Pozan talks which are proceeding slower than expected says Eoin O’Carroll in the Christian Science Monitor . “At the heart of much of the disagreement is that perennial struggle between rich and poor [countries], says O’Carroll.

In the meantime, Senator John Kerry (D-MA), who has been asked to report back to the forming Obama administration, told the BBC that the new incoming Congress and administration would be more engaged with other nations in climate change issues.

The issue will be near the top of Obama’s to-do list, along with talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program that collapsed yesterday .

Paul Guinnessy