Senior Obama Aides Vow to Act Swiftly on Energy and Climate

Saying the United States has lacked a comprehensive energy and climate policy for “many, many years now”, a top environmental adviser to President-elect Barack Obama said passing legislation to wean the country’s economy from carbon-based fuels will be a top priority of the new administration. “The president-elect will move quickly on climate change,” Jason Grumet, the Obama campaign’s lead energy and environmental adviser, told a conference on carbon trading. “My suggestion to all of you is to … rest up because I think it’s going to be a very, very busy 2009.” Obama’s transition chief, John Podesta, vowed that the new president would act “very aggressively” to move the U.S. from “high carbon energy to low carbon energy.” New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a leading Democrat active on climate change, said he anticipated that Obama’s initial focus would be on developing alternative sources of energy as part of a new economic program, after which he would move to pass cap-and-trade legislation that would put a price on carbon emissions.