Obama's energy, climate change advisor is leaving the administration

Katie Colaneri

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Katie Colaneri is a reporter for StateImpact Pennsylvania and WHYY in Philadelphia covering energy and the environment. Before joining StateImpact, Katie worked as an investigative and enterprise reporter at WBGO in Newark, New Jersey. She covered some of New Jersey's biggest stories including the devastation and aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, as well as the day-to-day triumphs and struggles to revitalize state's largest city. A native of New Jersey with roots in South Central Pennsylvania, Katie holds a bachelor's degree from Wellesley College.

October 8, 2013 | 8:46 AM

President Obama’s top advisor on climate change and energy issues, Heather Zichal, 37, is stepping down from her post.
In a statement, White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough praised Zichal’s work in helping the administration develop a plan to address America’s contribution to global warming. She also led a federal task force on hydraulic fracturing or fracking and the domestic boom in oil and natural gas production.
“Heather will be missed here at the White House, but our work on this important issue will go on,” McDonough said.
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No replacement has been named, and the White House didn’t offer details on Zichal’s next job.
Zichal, 37, joined the administration after advising Obama on agriculture, energy and environmental issues during the 2008 campaign. She told an interviewer in 2012 that as a child she would dream up “new ways to recycle.” She recalled asking her parents to collect waste paper from the clinic where her dad worked as a doctor and her mother as a nurse to make bedding for the animals on her grandfather’s farm.
As an aide to former Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, a Democrat, and two New Jersey Democratic congressmen, she worked on legislation to protect natural resources such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In the White House, she has fended off complaints from environmental groups during Obama’s first term that the administration didn’t fight hard enough for climate legislation and about the president’s decision to kill the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to lower harmful ozone levels. This year’s climate plan, which centers on reducing carbon emissions from power plants, won support from environmental groups.