Learner for Obama's CEQ top environment advisor

Howard Learner would be good at CEQ, and he has my support.

CHICAGO -- Howard Learner is director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, and also a leading candidate for President-elect Barack Obama's Chairman of the influential White House Council on Environmental Quality.

I met Howard in 2007 in northern Michigan at a science and policy conference on global warming and the Great Lakes. We had a good talk then about the environment, politics, Obama and turning America around. I also talked with him this week, and find that he'd be a solid pick for CEQ, which badly needs a shakeup and return to public-interest focus. Learner has known and advised Obama on environmental issues for years.

Before founding ELPC, Learner was the General Counsel of Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, a public interest law center, specializing in complex civil litigation and policy development. Mr. Learner is an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University Law School, teaching an advanced environmental law seminar. He holds J.D., Harvard Law School, 1980; B.A., Political Science, University of Michigan, 1976.