Looking Ahead

The election isn't unitl Tuesday but it probably isn't too early to ask "What might an Obama administration look like in terms of Energy and Environmental administrators?"

Grist magazine, publishing in the Guardian (UK), has culled together some predictions for the Obama cabinet. Prominent among the individuals being bandied about are two familiar California names: Mary Nichols and Terry Tamminen.

Grist speculates that Nichols is a candidate for EPA Admisistrator and that Taminen could be considered for "Climate Change Czar" along with Bill Richardson and Al Gore.

On Nichols:

"As one of the key leaders working to implement California's groundbreaking and ambitious 2006 climate law, Mary Nichols has eye-catching qualifications for this job. She's been chair of the California Air Resources Board since July 2007, reprising a role she held from 1978 to 1983 under Gov. Jerry Brown. In the early 1970s, she worked as an environmental lawyer, spending time at the Natural Resources Defense Council, then later going on to serve as secretary for California's Resources Agency and a senior official in the Clinton EPA. Her extraordinarily deep resume would be hard to match if government experience factors heavily in Obama's decision."

On Tamminen:

"As a top advisor to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), Terry Tamminen helped engineer California's ambitious 2006 carbon cap-and-trade plan. He then left the state in a quest to become a "Johnny Appleseed" of climate action, spreading plans and ideas for cutting greenhouse gases to leaders across the country, including Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R). He gained administrative experience during a stint as head of the California EPA from 2003 to 2004, and he wrote the 2006 book Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction. As a Democrat who worked under a Republican governor, Tamminen would be a good fit for Obama's post-partisan philosophy. "

Obama's potential green team [Grist via the Guardian]