-- Steven Chu, nominated for Energy Secretary, was one of three scientists who shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1997 for work in cooling and trapping atoms with laser light. He's a professor of physics and molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and has been the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 2004, where he has pushed for research into alternative energy as a way to combat global warming. 

-- Lisa Jackson, nominated for EPA administrator, will be the first black person to lead the EPA, is a former New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection commissioner who worked at the federal agency for 16 years, including under Browner when she was Clinton's EPA chief. Jackson is a co-chairman of Obama's EPA transition team, and currently serves as chief of staff to New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine. 

-- Carol Browner, nominated for Energy Czar, served as EPA chief for eight years under Clinton, will become Obama's go-to person in the White House overseeing energy issues, an area expected to include the environment and climate matters. Now chair of the National Audubon Society and on the boards of several other environmental groups, Browner has been leading the Obama transition's working group on energy and environment. 

-- Nancy Sutley, chosen to lead White House Council on Environmental Quality, was the deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles and the mayor's representative on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, is the first prominent member of the gay and lesbian community to earn a senior role in Obama's new administration. She was an EPA official during the Clinton administration, including being a special assistant to the EPA administrator in Washington. 

So, aside from the obvious emphasis on racial and sexual diversity in Obama's choices for his "environment team" he has again dipped back into the past to bring us some more recycled Clinton appointees.  When you think about it, what was that conversation like?  

"Uh, well...Rahm, I, uh, well, need to find, uh...qualified lesbian, uh, for, uh...White House council....and a good Chinese guy for uh, well, uh, Energy...and we are still short a, uh, few more African Americans...another mulatto would be great!"