US President-elect Barack Obama has his green team. And for environmentalists, it is a dream team.

Obama has selected Nobel-prize winning physicist Steven Chu as energy secretary and Lisa Jackson, the former head of New Jersey's environmental department, to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Carol Browner, a confidante of former vice-president Al Gore, will lead a White House council on energy and climate. Browner, the longest-serving EPA administrator in history, headed the agency during the Clinton administration's two terms.