The Nobel Prize-winning Berkeley physicist Steven Chu will serve as the secretary of energy. Environmental advocates have praised his anticipated selection as a sign that science, not business interests, will drive Obama’s energy policy. Obama confirmed this notion by stating that Chu’s appointment “should send a signal to all that my administration will value science.”

Chu will be accompanied by Lisa Jackson as the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Nancy Sutley as the chairwoman of the Council on Environmental Quality and Carol Browner as the so-called “energy czar,” a new position that Obama said would promote “integration among different agencies.”

Jackson undertook ambitious efforts to curb emissions in her three years as the commissioner of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection — although a drive down the Turnpike might say otherwise — and she now serves as Gov. Jon Corzine’s chief of staff. She will be the first African-American EPA chief.

Sutley, who currently serves as the deputy mayor of Los Angeles, is the first openly gay appointee in the Obama administration. Like Jackson, she supported Hillary Clinton in the primary campaign.

Browner was the longest-serving EPA chief in history under Bill Clinton. She is currently the chair of the Audubon Society.

Obama emphasized that his administration will promote his environmental agenda as a means to economic growth, through the creation of 2.5 million green jobs and enhanced efficiency, rather than an impediment. “There is not a contradiction between economic growth and sound environmental practices,” he said.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden spoke briefly and stated that he would also play a prominent role in the country’s energy policies. “The office of the vice president will no longer be an obstacle to environmental protection,” he said. “It will be a force for leaping ahead.”

When the floor opened to questions, the conversation inevitably turned to the Blagojevich scandal. Obama reiterated that he was not involved.

“I had no contact with the governor’s office,” he said, “and I had no contact with anyone in the governor’s office.” He said that his team has produced a report on the interaction between the Obama transition office and Blagojevich’s circle, and that “there was nothing in the report that contradicted my earlier statements.” Obama said the report has not yet been released because of the state of the federal investigation.

Despite the tail-end question about Blago, today’s event focussed largely on the green team’s hopes for the future. For a taste of the creative solutions Chu hopes to bring to the country’s energy problems, take a look at his address to the National Energy Summit this summer:

A Chinese-American, Chu is 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 aggressively for research into alternative energy as a way to combat global warming.

It is the oldest of the Energy Department’s national laboratories, but does only unclassified work and in recent years under Chu has been at the center of research into biofuels and solar technologies. Chu has been a strong advocate for the need to engage scientists in the search for ways to combat global warming by replacing fossil fuels with other energy sources such as biofuels and the sun.

If confirmed, Chu would be the second academic Obama has tapped from UC Berkeley, after Christina D. Romer, an economics professor picked to head Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.

The choice would further confirm that Obama is serious about revolutionizing the nation’s energy policy, and he is willing to look outside of Washington to tap the nation’s top experts in their respective fields.

The strategy is not without risks, as being a good scientist does not necessarily make one a good policymaker. However, Chu’s position as the director of a prominent research laboratory suggests he has experience managing a bureaucracy.

Perhaps most important, the move would close the door on yet another tragic hallmark of the Bush era — in the Obama administration, science will direct America’s energy policy, not vice versa.