There’s a growing push in Washington for a green economic-stimulus package, and enviros have reason to hope President-elect Barack Obama will lead the charge.

“Finding the new driver of our economy is going to be critical. There’s no better driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy,” Obama told Time‘s Joe Klein in an interview two weeks ago. “That’s going to be my No. 1 priority when I get into office, assuming obviously that we have done enough to just stabilize the immediate economic situation.”

Obama adviser Dan Kammen said this week that the Obama team may conduct a nationwide “listening tour” on energy and environmental issues in the next couple of months, in an effort to build support for its legislative plans. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Actually, Kammen says that he mentioned "listening tours" and "topical summits" as ideas that previous new administrations have considered or conducted on key issues. His comment was mischaracterized in an article by E&E News.]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), at a press conference on Wednesday, talked up the need for a stimulus package that includes green elements, ideally before Obama even takes office. “Central to the job-creation issue is the strong piece for rebuilding the infrastructure of America, again, in a way that reduces our dependence on foreign oil and that creates good green jobs in America. That is the first order of business that we will have, if it appears to have an opportunity, then we will have a lame-duck session to take it up.”

At a post-election press conference on Wednesday, leaders of major environmental groups also stressed the importance of an economic-stimulus package that includes green measures like home-weatherization funding, efficiency incentives, and aid for the auto industry make more efficient vehicles. That could be low-hanging fruit for creating new jobs and curbing energy use and emissions, they said.

“It’s about connecting the dots between energy, the environment, and the economy, and President Obama made that clear,” said Sierra Club Political Director Cathy Duvall. “It will help our economy recover, and it will also help our environment recover.”

“If there’s going to be a new economic stimulus package, clean energy should be cornerstone,” said Anna Aurilio of Environment America. “We think solving the economic crisis is going to be predicated on how well we launch the clean-energy economy.”

“The biggest solution is a new energy future,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters. “We’re pleased to be able to work with a new president who gets it on these issues.”

At an Environmental Law Institute event on Wednesday, policy wonks and a senior adviser to Republican Sen. Dick Lugar (Ind.) voiced similar sentiments.

The event’s moderator, Brookings Institution fellow David Sandalow (who was also an energy and environmental adviser to Obama’s campaign), noted that Obama will take leadership at “a period of historic opportunity and historic constraints.” The panelists agreed that the key to passing new energy and environmental legislation will be using it to spur economic growth — through building efficiency, mass transit, and infrastructure development.

“He has to sell it as an economic opportunity, and has to show sustained presidential leadership,” said Mark Helmke, who advises Lugar on these issues. “What he does on this issue from the bully pulpit will make light years of difference … It depends on how much President Obama uses his vaunted position to put heat on this topic.”

Green economic stimulus seems likely to be the earliest environmental progress we could see in the next year — if Obama and the new Congress can push it through.

“[Obama] understands the gravity of the problems we face, and we expect him to act,” said Sierra Club’s Duvall. “We expect to work with him on investing in clean energy and new jobs.”

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The green scoop on Obama’s Cabinet and administration picks and prospects as per Grist.

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr., attorney for Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council
  Grist article on Kennedy’s opposition to Cape Cod wind farm, 2006
  Grist interview with Kennedy, 2004
• Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board
• Carol Browner, EPA administrator under President Clinton
• Janet Napolitano, governor of Arizona
• Kathleen Sebelius, governor of Kansas
  Grist interview with Sebelius, 2008
• Kathleen McGinty, former head of Pennsylvania EPA and President Clinton’s White House Council on Environmental Quality
  Grist interview with McGinty, 2005
• Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute
• Dan Esty, Obama energy adviser and environmental law professor at Yale
• Ian Bowles, secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs for the state of Massachusetts
• Lisa Renstrom, former president of the Sierra Club
• Lisa Jackson, commissioner of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
• Wayne Gilchrest, Republican representative from Maryland
• Sherwood Boehlert, former Republican representative from New York
  Grist interview with Boehlert, 2006
• Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, former senior policy analyst at EPA’s Office of International Activities
• Brad Campbell, former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
• Robert Sussman, deputy administrator of the EPA under Clinton, now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress
• Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago and a longtime advisor to Obama on environmental issues

• Jason Grumet, Obama energy adviser and president of the Bipartisan Policy Center
  Grist interview with Grumet, 2008
• Ed Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania
• Dan Reicher, director of climate change and energy initiatives for Google.org
  Grist interview with Reicher, 2008
• Phil Sharp, former Democratic representative from Indiana and current president of Resources for the Future
• Jeff Bingaman, Democratic senator from New Mexico and the current chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
  Grist interview with Bingaman, 2005
• Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico and former secretary of energy under President Clinton
  Grist interview with Richardson, 2007
• Jennifer Granholm, governor of Michigan
  Grist interview with Granholm, 2004
• Kathleen Sebelius, governor of Kansas
  Grist interview with Sebelius, 2008
• Ralph Izzo, president and CEO of Public Service Enterprise Group, a New Jersey-based electric company
• Frederick W. Smith, president and CEO of FedEx

• Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico
  Grist interview with Richardson, 2007
• Brian Schweitzer, governor of Montana
  Rick Bass profiles Schweitzer, 2006
• Jamie Rappaport Clark, Fish and Wildlife Service director under President Clinton and current executive vice president at Defenders of Wildlife
  Grist Q&A with Rappaport Clark, 2005
• Jay Inslee, Democratic representative from Washington state
  Grist interview with Inslee, 2007
• Tony Knowles, former governor of Alaska
• Jennifer Granholm, governor of Michigan
  Grist interview with Granholm, 2004
• John Kitzhaber, former governor of Oregon
• Ken Salazar, Democratic senator from Colorado and former executive director of Colorado Natural Resources Department

• Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa
  Grist interview with Vilsack, 2007
• Tom Buis, a former aide to Sen. Tom Daschle and president of the National Farmers Union
• Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Democratic representative from South Dakota and former director of the South Dakota Farmers Union Foundation
• Charles Stenholm, former Democratic representative from Texas
• Jim Leach, former Republican representative from Iowa
• Collin Peterson, Democratic representative from Minnesota and chair of House Agriculture Committee

• Earl Blumenauer, Democratic representative from Oregon
• Steve Heminger, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for the Bay Area
• Ed Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania
• James Oberstar, Democratic representative from Minnesota and chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
• Peter DeFazio, Democratic representative from Oregon and chair of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
• Janette Sadik-Kahn, commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation
• Jane Garvey, former head of Federal Aviation Administration
• Mortimer Downey, deputy transportation secretary under President Clinton

• Al Gore, former vice president
  Grist info on Gore
• Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico and former secretary of energy under President Clinton
  Grist interview with Richardson, 2007
• Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California
• Terry Tamminen, a top adviser to Schwarzenegger and head of the California EPA from 2003 to 2004
  Grist interview with Tamminen, 2007
• John Podesta, president of the Center for American Progress and former chief of staff to President Clinton
• Carol Browner, EPA administrator under President Clinton
• Bob Sussman, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress

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