I am sorry to report that Sue Tierney will no longer be a candidate for deputy secretary of energy. She sent out an email today to friends indicating that was her decision. She would have been a first rate deputy (see here).
The email was private, so I won’t discuss its contents. I will say that just months as acting assistant secretary in 1997 was pretty much all I could take of that unbelievably demanding and stressful job. And the workload—and travel—gets more demanding and stressful the higher up you go. Deputy is two levels above assistant secretary, so I honestly don’t know how anybody manages those jobs—and it is no surprise to me that anyone ultimately decides it isn’t right for them.
I don’t think it will be particularly easy to replace Tierney’s multiple skill sets and talents—but it is absolutely critical that Steven Chu pick someone who is an energy expert, preferably someone with some DOE experience, and preferably someone who can help on the crucial issue of transmission (see here).
This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Obama administration officials grateful for early spring
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b e r n a r d o Posted 2:14 pm
04 Mar 2009
To me, she's the embodiment of conflicted environmentalism: she consults for energy companies while currently chairing the board of a Energy Foundation (EF), a major funder to environmentalists.
Critics have take the foundation to task for having driven the deregulatory agenda on electricity that manifested during the Clinton years, favoring with financial largess groups supportive of deregulation while cutting off critics. These same groups favored by EF are the ones pushing the trading agenda towards dealing with global warming.
I'm sure that Tierney is quite personable, capable and smart, but gross conflicts of interest are what got us into the current economic abyss, opened up California to be looted by Enron and its ilk, and I fear that the same amongst elite enviros doesn't bode well for the future of the planet.
While I don't regret that she's had to pull out, I imagine that whoever replaces her will be no better regarding these matters that concern me.
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