In a press conference this morning, President Obama nominated Utah's Republican Governor Jon Huntsman for Ambassador to China:
Obama said he made the appointment "mindful of its extraordinary significance" and the breadth of issues at stake in U.S.-China relations, including the global economic crisis, the environment, public health, human rights and North Korea and Pakistan.
Admittedly, on environmental issues, he is quite good for a Republican:
Utah is uniquely positioned to meet our future energy needs. A clean, diverse, secure mix of energy resources is essential to maintain Utah's quality of life and economic development. We have the energy resources, people, and technological capabilities to accomplish this goal. We must develop the clean and renewable resources to meet the energy needs of our citizens and businesses and sustain our economy, meet environmental challenges of air quality and water quality, as well as climate change and greenhouse gas reductions.
Unfortunately, he also supports unsustainable polices such as offering massive incentives for natural gas vehicles and spending taxpayer money to research ways to bury pollution underground. These are not productive polices and the repercussions could be disastrous if Mr. Huntsman tells his future Chinese counterparts otherwise.
Obviously, our ambassador to China will play a critical role in the ambitious task of convincing China to commit to a strong climate plan in Copenhagen in December. I hope Mr. Huntsman is up to the task.