Washington (Platts)--19Nov2008

US President-elect Barack Obama named a host of key advisers Wednesday,
including the person who will be charged with developing his major energy and
environmental policies.

Carol Browner, who ran the US Environmental Protection Agency under
President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, will head up a "policy working
group" for energy and environmental policies, the Obama transition team said
in an e-mailed statement to reporters.

The working groups on energy and other matters will "develop the priority
policy proposals and plans" that Obama will pursue after he takes office on
January 20, 2009, the transition team said.

Browner currently serves as a principal at the Albright Group, a
Washington-based consultancy. She also sits on the board of several
environmental groups, including the National Audubon Society and the Alliance
for Climate Protection.

Browner has figured prominently in Obama's transition team since the
Illinois Democrat won the US presidential election on November 4. The
following day, Obama announced that Browner would serve on an "advisory board"
to help plan his transition to the White House.

In speeches and written material, Browner has urged Obama to undertake
some bold approaches to energy and environmental policy. In a white paper she
authored recently for a Washington-based advocacy group called the Center for
American Progress, she urged Obama to take decisive action on his very first
day in office to begin curbing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, oil
refineries and other industries.

That would mark a departure from the Bush administration, which for eight
years has resisted calls to impose mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions
as a means of combating global climate change.

Browner has also called on Obama to reverse another Bush administration
policy by allowing California and other states to regulate heat-trapping
carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and trucks.

In addition to naming Browner to head up the energy and environment
working group, the Obama team also named advisers Wednesday to formulate his
economic, education, health care, immigration, national security and
technology policies.

--Brian Hansen, brian_hansen@platts.com