Activists on the left flank of the environmental movement are quietly circulating a wish-list packed with green-minded candidates to fill Hillary Clinton's administration, as they work to keep her Cabinet free of anyone who has previously shown an affinity for fossil fuels.
Green groups like Greenpeace USA and 350.org are pressuring Clinton to tap nominees for the Energy Department, Interior Department, EPA and other key administration posts who share their strident anti-fossil fuels values if she wins the presidency on Tuesday. They are looking for reassurances that Clinton is sufficiently committed to reining in oil, gas and coal development for the sake of fighting climate change, especially after hacked emails showed her team is wary of making big promises and occasionally dismissed activists' concerns.
"We want the Cabinet choices to demonstrate that we’re heard, when behind closed doors we’re told to 'get a life,'" said one environmentalist, who is still angry about the hacked emails that revealed Clinton mocking greens in private comments to union members. "We know that we’re getting out the vote for a candidate who actively dislikes us."
Prominent liberal green activists told POLITICO that they are pushing several preferred candidates, some longtime fixtures in Washington as well as a few political neophytes.
Stanford University professor Mark Jacobson is among the left's leading candidates for energy secretary. Jacobson has spent years modeling the effects of air pollution and he has detailed a plan to move the world toward 100 percent renewable energy. And they praised former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a possible candidate for energy secretary if Clinton wins the White House, for being a persistent voice against Keystone. Granholm further endeared herself to progressive environmental activists when she said recently that she opposes the Dakota Access pipeline project in North Dakota and added, “We ought to be doing everything we possibly can to keep fossil fuel energy in the ground."
For EPA administrator, activists are eyeing Van Jones, a long-time environmental activist who served as President Barack Obama's green jobs adviser for less than a year. The activists, who requested anonymity to discuss their internal discussions, also said they'd support Obama's first-term EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, returning to government to serve in Clinton's administration.
And they're pushing Rep. Raul Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who is a fierce defender of public lands, for Interior secretary. A co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Grijalva was the first member of Congress to endorse Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, though he switched his endorsement to Clinton in June, before Sanders formally conceded.
One activist even suggested that Jane Kleeb, a leader of the grassroots anti-Keystone XL movement who was elected to chair the Nebraska Democratic Party earlier this year, would make a good candidate for a Clinton administration position.
Major environmental groups like the League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club have remained publicly silent about Clinton's nominations, insisting that they are focused on getting Clinton elected.
Clinton campaign officials say they haven't made any final decisions on nominees. But many of the names being suggested by environmental activists would likely face a storm of opposition from Republicans in the Senate, as well as from some of the moderate Democrats who will have to defend their seats in 2018, making it unlikely they will be chosen.
Still, activists are equally focused on who they don't want Clinton to choose. Two names top the list of nominees who they would oppose: Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and former Obama White House climate adviser Heather Zichal. Greens have long disliked Hickenlooper for defending fracking and his home state's oil and gas industry, and the most left-wing environmental groups have never forgiven Zichal for joining the board of liquefied natural gas company Cheniere Energy.
Zichal is seen as a leading candidate for a job in a Clinton administration, perhaps as the head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Zichal declined to comment.
One activist said liberal environmental groups will oppose any candidates "who have been part of a revolving door between industry and public service, or people who in their time in public service made it clear they were on the side of the fossil fuel industry," adding that any nominee who supported Keystone XL is also a non-starter.
Greenpeace USA Executive Director Annie Leonard said her group will oppose any candidate that has financial interests in or served on the boards of polluting companies, or have lobbied for groups that "promote and campaign for polluting industries" within the last five years. She said her group does not endorse politicians. Instead, it outlines its preferred criteria for nominees, and underscores which candidates it opposes. Leonard said Greenpeace USA would oppose the nominations of Hickenlooper and Zichal to any energy or climate-related position.
Many major environmental groups are skeptical of Hickenlooper, who has been floated as a potential candidate to lead the Interior Department, Agriculture Department or Commerce Department. But they disagree with activists' criticism of Zichal, who they praise for being a key architect of Obama's first-term climate agenda.
"Heather is a longtime ally who has spent her career working to protect the environment. She's passionate about these issues, smart, strategic and incredibly effective. During her many years at the White House, she was a major force in advancing clean energy, the Climate Action Plan, and so much more," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, the senior vice president for government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters, stressing that her group is not yet taking a public stance on potential nominees.
The differing perspectives on Zichal underscore the many disagreements within the diverse environmental community. Groups like 350 have long played the role of the outside agitator, while LCV, which was the first environmental group to endorse Clinton, tends to work within the system.
Indeed, Sittenfeld and LCV President Gene Karpinski, as well as Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer and other top officials at environmental groups have been in contact with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and other campaign officials, according to hacked emails released by WikiLeaks.
The emails also reveal some sympathy from Podesta for the movement's left flank. When Greenpeace asked Clinton to sign a pledge disavowing contributions from fossil fuel interests, Podesta suggested letting them down by explaining that she would not be signing pledges from any interest groups. Instead, he said, the campaign should put out a statement emphasizing that "fossil fuel interests have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat her and we welcome their loathing and will take them on and beat them," according to one hacked email.
LCV, Sierra Club, NRDC and Steyer's NextGen Climate group declined to discuss their top picks for nominees. But sources said the groups are discussing the issue privately and are expected to say more after the election.