By Ian Talley
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell Monday ruled himself out as a candidate for energy secretary under President-elect Barack Obama's administration.
Rendell has been mentioned by Capitol Hill analysts and insiders as a top candidate for the post, but Rendell said categorically he wasn't leaving his current post.
Besides a commitment to the voters who elected him governor of Pennsylvania, Rendell said it would be the worst financial time to leave and he didn't want to hand the post over to a Republican.
Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll died last month after battling cancer, leaving State Senate President Joseph Scarnati to take her place.
"He's a good man, but he's a very conservative, no-spend, no borrow right-wing Republican and I couldn't leave the 19th largest economy in the world in his hands," Rendell told reporters at an event here.
"If [the energy secretary position] is going to be for me, it would be down the road," he said.
Last month, U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was also reported to be a candidate, but he said he wouldn't take the post.
Other possibilities include Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Ernest Moniz, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative and former undersecretary for energy in the Clinton administration, and Kathleen McGinty, a former Pennsylvania secretary of environmental protection and chairman of the Council for Environmental Quality under Clinton.
D.C. political pundits say Obama is likely to name his secretary of energy this week, along with the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the secretary of the interior.
-By Ian Talley, Dow Jones Newswires, 202-862-9285; ian.talley@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 01, 2008 16:41 ET (21:41 GMT)

Publié le 01 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones