Who might lead Energy

When voters head to the ballot box Nov. 6, they won’t just be electing a president for the next four years — they also effectively will select a whole slew of government leaders who will chart the U.S. course on energy and environmental issues.

Although neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney has specifically said who would lead the departments of Energy and Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency under their watches, the candidates have given some signals about the kinds of people they would choose.

Their ideal picks would withstand political pressure to push the White House’s priorities while drawing on relevant experience and expertise, noted Brandon Rottinghaus, an associate political science professor at the University of Houston.

But the candidates — whether they are Nobel laureates, like Obama’s current energy secretary, Steven Chu, or longtime politicians, such as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar — also need to survive Senate confirmation.

That process could be especially bloody if Obama wins and Republicans take Senate control, or if Democrats hold the upper chamber but Romney captures the White House.

The confirmation hearings in early 2013 will give senators a chance to highlight their complaints about energy policies and try to extract pledges from the Cabinet nominees about their plans for regulating industry, enforcing environmental laws and selling drilling leases.

“The most important element for Obama energy and environment appointments is that Senate Republicans could wage pitched confirmation battles to bully the administration into weakening public health safeguards,” predicted Dan Weiss, a fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Customarily, when presidents are re-elected, their Cabinet secretaries hand in resignations, though many may be invited back. With little Cabinet turnover during Obama’s first four years in office, political experts say some changes would be inevitable if he won a second term. Among the likely contenders to leave: EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Chu, who heads the sprawling
$26 billion Department of Energy.

Where Obama might seek to elevate existing agency leaders and tap state regulators, Romney has signaled that he would be looking for people with business experience.

Energy experts widely predict Obama and Romney would look to governors and lawmakers from the West in filling the top job at the Interior Department, which oversees oil drilling, recreation, grazing and other activities on federal lands and waters.

If Romney wants a Democrat in his Cabinet, Interior is a logical place for one, because many western Democrats are used to dealing with the intersection of energy development and public lands — and tend to be more supportive of oil and gas production.

Picking a member of the opposing party lets any president give a nod to bipartisanship, Rottinghaus noted. The move also could smooth the way for more contentious nominees in other posts.