Washington (Platts)--1Dec2008

US President-elect Barack Obama named his top national security advisers
Monday -- including former first lady Hillary Clinton as secretary of state --
choosing officials who have voiced strong and controversial opinions on energy
issues such as taxing major oil companies, expanding offshore oil and natural
gas drilling and capping greenhouse gas emissions from refineries, electric
utilities and other industries.

Speaking at a press conference in Chicago, Obama tapped Clinton, a
Democratic senator from New York, to be his secretary of state. Clinton, who
was Obama's chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, compiled a
long track record on energy and environmental issues during her seven years in
the Senate and her hard-fought presidential primary campaign against Obama.

As secretary of state, Clinton could play a key role in trying to
convince China, India and other major industrial countries to agree to binding
emission caps. Obama has said several times since the November 4 election that
his administration will push hard for an international climate treaty to
follow the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2012. Obama has also
said that he will not allow the current economic crisis to delay his plans to
address climate change in the US and on the global stage.

Clinton has been a strong advocate for instituting a mandatory cap on
greenhouse gas emissions from energy producers and other industries. In June,
she voted for a bill that would have required oil refineries, electric
utilities and other broad sectors of the US economy to slash their
heat-trapping emissions about 70% below 2005 levels by mid-century. The bill
was defeated on the Senate floor, but Clinton said in her primary campaign
against Obama that she would continue to press hard for climate legislation.

Clinton could also urge Obama to change US policy towards taxing major
integrated oil companies. Clinton has pushed hard to institute a "windfall
profits tax" on oil majors, saying the approach would generate tens of
billions of dollars for a "strategic energy fund" that would bankroll
clean-energy projects and technologies that could be used to combat global
climate change. Many Republican lawmakers and energy-industry officials balked
at the plan, saying it would cause gasoline shortages and drive up energy
prices.

Clinton has also sponsored legislation that sought to reduce US oil
imports 50% by 2025. She has argued that this could be done by shifting away
from gasoline-powered cars and trucks to vehicles that run on biofuels and
electricity. She offered various incentives to speed that conversion, such as
loan guarantees for producers of cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels. She
has also called for tax credits for gasoline station owners who install pumps
for E-85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.

Obama also announced he was selecting Defense Secretary Robert Gates to
remain in that position, nominating Eric Holder as attorney general,
nominating Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as secretary of the Department of
Homeland Security, nominating Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations
and selecting retired Marine Corps General Jim Jones as national security
adviser.
--Brian Hansen, brian_hansen@platts.com