EPA

Barack Obama has created a top-notch team to guide his transition into the White House. Next, he should create a team to guide America’s transition to a new energy economy.

I’m not talking about the prestigious group of economic advisers Obama already has assembled to help him identify solutions to the economic meltdown.

I’m talking about a team that includes experts in sustainable energy technologies, climate mitigation and adaptation, capital investment, state and local government, business, industry and labor.

This hasn’t been the coal industry’s month.

First, Barack Obama, who is expected to push hard for federal carbon regulation, was elected president. And now, in a landmark decision with far-reaching implications, the EPA Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) has rejected a federal air permit for a proposed new coal plant in Utah over climate change pollution concerns.

Last week, the U.S. EPA released a grim, 284-page study (pdf) that concluded that climate change will cause "substantial" threats to the health of the American public.

And yet, one week prior to the report’s release, the agency ruled that it will not regulate harmful greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, ignoring its own warnings that emissions will endanger the public welfare.

It shouldn’t have. Excerpts from the EPA’s own findings:

Evidence of state leadership on climate keeps pouring in: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced he’s going to adopt California’s tough auto emissions standards.

They’re the toughest in the nation. They would force a 25% cut in emissions from cars and 18 percent from sport utility vehicles by the 2009 model year. (The catch is that the EPA must grant California permission to impose them. Schwarzenegger’s been battling the EPA in court for two years on the issue.)