A thumbs up for a climate change activist and a big thumbs down for a head of business who just happened to be a Republican. That’s how John Podesta recommended who should lead the Energy Department in President Obama’s first Cabinet, according to emails released Monday by the group WikiLeaks.
Podesta, who now serves as chairman of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, has been the target of a WikiLeaks document dump of his illegally obtained emails over the last several days.
Podesta said over the weekend that the emails were not authentic and that he was not sure where they were coming from. The emails posted by WikiLeaks on Monday were identified as being addressed from and to Podesta from various parties.
The emails showed Podesta favoring billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer to serve as secretary of energy, while a name the campaign was considering, General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, be scratched from the list.
Immelt, who happens to be a Republican, “seems impossible to me,” according to Podesta, in an email to Obama 2008 campaign adviser Cassandra Butts.
Podesta, who had served as former President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, at the time was president of the progressive think tank Center for American Progress.
Butts had wanted Podesta’s thoughts on a number of candidates for the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. She had floated Immelt for the top spot at Energy.
“Maybe Commerce but very unlikely at Energy,” Podesta said in commenting further on Immelt. Podesta then advised Butts to consider Steyer, who was then with the investment bank Farallon Capital, for the top spot at Energy. Steyer was not on Butts’ initial shortlist.
Podesta also passed up another Republican on Obama’s list to head the Energy Department: then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He proposed then-mayor of Denver John Hickenlooper, who is now the Democratic governor of Colorado. Podesta also recommended former Democratic Sen. Tim Wirth of Colorado.
Steyer is noted for helping back Hickenlooper’s rise to governor in Colorado.
Obama instead tapped Steven Chu, a physics professor and Nobel Prize winner, to lead the Energy Department during his first term.
Podesta also recommended his choices to head the EPA, including Katie McGinty and Ian Bowles, two former air officials with Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, respectively. McGinty is running for Senate against Republican incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey.
The 2008 Obama campaign was eyeing then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and then-Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who later became the administration’s health secretary, for the top EPA spot.
