Obama's assurance on climate / Green bid: US to act quickly

The Deccan Herald , Friday, November 14, 2008
Correspondent : From Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, Washington:
Barack Obama, who has spent much of the time since his election closeted with his advisers in Chicago, sent a strong signal on Wednesday that he plans a decisive break with George Bush on environmental policy once he moves into the White House.

The move was part of a carefully coded series of messages from Obama meant to reassure America and the world about the shape of his administration, which does not assume power until January 20.

Also on Wednesday, Obama appointed Madeleine Albright, who served as Bill Clinton’s secretary of state, and Jim Leach, a former Republican member of Congress from Iowa who endorsed his campaign, to meet delegations visiting Washington for the G20 summit at the weekend. Obama will not attend the summit, and aides have repeatedly noted that Bush remains president until January 20.

Changes to come

But while Obama and Joe Biden, the vice president-elect, have been elusive since the election, the Democrat has delivered a number of messages intended to heighten anticipation of changes to come.

In one such signal the president-elect sent Jason Grumet, a policy adviser mentioned for a possible energy post, to an environmental conference in Washington to offer reassurances that there would be swift movement on climate change legislation. “The whole transition team felt it important to be here,” Grumet said. “I think it is going to be a very very busy 2009, and I think we are going to need all of you to be on top of your game.”

However, Grumet did not offer policy specifics, and his optimism was not shared by others at the conference, organised by the consulting group Point Carbon and the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change.

Trade legislation

Jeff Bingaman, the New Mexico senator who chairs the Senate’s energy and national resources committee and another possibility for a post in the administration, said it was highly unlikely that Obama could sign into law cap and trade legislation next year. “I think the reality is that it may take more than a year to get it all done,” he said, pointing to 2010.

Grumet’s brief appearance was seen as a signal that Obama, who for nearly two years of campaigning warned of a “planet in peril”, was serious about following through on a 30-point agenda that called for creating green jobs, cutting US oil consumption, and moving to renewable sources of energy.

 
SOURCE : Friday, 14 November 2008
 


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