Obama taps REI chief Sally Jewell for US interior secretary

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will nominate Sally Jewell, an outdoor enthusiast and chief executive of retailer REI, as US interior secretary, an administration official said yesterday.
Jewell is the first woman Obama has announced for his second-term Cabinet, which has been criticized as lacking diversity, and also lends credentials from the nation’s West.
Among other things, the next interior secretary will lead the department’s implementation of controversial rules governing the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on public lands, oversee the push to drill in the Arctic, and guide the policies governing permits of renewable energy on federal land.
Jewell, a former banking executive, joined Recreational Equipment Inc. as a board member in 1996 before taking over as chief operating officer in 2000 and then later as CEO of the national retail chain.
A graduate of the University of Washington, where she now serves as a regent, Jewell began her career as an engineer at Mobil Oil Corp, working in Oklahoma and Colorado.
She has received several awards recognizing her work in environmental conservation.
Obama is remaking his energy and environmental team at a time when the nation is responding to a surge in shale oil and gas development that has transformed the US energy outlook. Decisions are still awaited on replacements for Lisa Jackson, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, and Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary.