Lisa Jackson Reported as Likely EPA Administrator, Chu May Head Energy Department

Lisa Jackson, presently head of the New Jersey DEP, is the selection of president-elect Obama to run the US Environmental Protection Agency, according to a story from AP. She's a chemical engineer from Princeton who has the kind of attitude toward regulating greenhouse gases that Mr. Obama likes. It could mean problems for coal during his administration.

An even greater surprise, although consistent with PE Obama's promise of change, is word of the possible choice of a Nobel Prize winner as Energy Secretary. It will be interesting to see whether a brilliant scientist such as Steven Chu can manage the bureaucracy of a large federal agency.