Obama’s Climate Change And Energy Team

Though many of the choices have already been made, President-elect Obama took to the airwaves today to formally announce his climate change and energy team.

The appointees will be slated with carrying out the proposed aggressive energy approach that Obama touted during the campaign, and has continued to harp on since the election.

Here are some of the major appointments expected to be announced at a 5 p.m. EST new conference:

• Nobel physics laureate Steven Chu, energy secretary
• Former EPA chief Carol Browner, Climate Czar
• Lisa Jackson, Head of EPA
• Nancy Sutley, head of White House Council on Environmental Quality

Right Away, Mr. President

I expect it’ll be right to work for this assembled cast.

They’ll need to be briefed on the energy and environmental policy (if you can call it that) of the last eight years.

Then it’ll be right to the drawing board to figure out how to undo what’s been done and set the country on a path of sustainability and energy security.

It’s a daunting task, but a necessary one, if we’re to avoid the serious consequences of climate change and free ourselves of foreign oil’s greasy grip.

Most scientists agree that emissions need to be cut 50% to 80% by the middle of the century, a seemingly impossible task.

Mr. Obama’s goal is to return to our 1990 emissions levels (similar to Kyoto), by 2020, which would be a 16% reduction in the next 11 years, or 1.45% per year. That will also be tough to do, as emissions generally increase year-to-year, not decrease.

The most difficult part of the plan, however, will be convincing businesses and consumers they need to spend money now to save energy and emissions in the future-especially when the pricetag is so large.,

Energy Transition, Portfolio Transition

It’s going to cost trillions of dollars.

And that means you can reap two-fold profits from Obama’s energy policy.

First, you’ll get the societal and ecological benefits of the projects just by being an American citizen.

But, if you’re a savvy American citizen, you can reap monetary profits by investing in the companies that will be executing the Obama plan, namely renewable energy and infrastructure companies.

You see, stock prices have been beaten down the entire year as the world fought through a financial crisis brought on by greed and, essentially, facilitated by look-the-other-way Washington policy.

But it’s this very financial crisis that will allow for massive spending in the energy arena.

Obama’s plan (and it’s already working) is to use the crisis as reason for a cash injection, similar to economic stimulus earlier this year.

Only instead of giving the cash to taxpayers, the money would go to building out infrastructure and other projects that deploy renewable energy sources and increase energy efficiency.

And that government money-used to build out energy projects and create jobs-will end up on the income statements of related companies, the same companies we follow here day in and day out.

If you’re smart, you can turn this coming spending into your own personal stimulus.

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