President-elect Obama has done the right thing in filling top positions in his administration on energy and the environment. They will show the country what it means to be aggressive about measures to combat climate change. This will help clarify and maybe even conclude the otherwise endless debate.

Obama named Steven Chu to be his nominee for secretary of the Department of Energy. (Among its many branches is the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Albany.) Chu is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. He is a strong backer of California-style regulation that is driving up the price of utilities.

Carol Browner, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton administration, will be nominated for a new job which the press has been calling “climate policy czar.”

Why we would want to give the title of a Russian despot to someone in charge of any aspect of the American government should have been explained long ago, when we first got an energy czar and a drug czar.

So far the title alone has been misapplied. We have never had a working or effective energy policy, or one on drugs. This time, though, might be different. Browner is known as a tough operator who gets things done. And if she wants to push the country to take steps against climate change, we will all feel the effect.

The climate is changing whether anybody does anything about it or not. But the policies intended to combat the change will be impossible to miss.

Czar Browner will try to make sure that the country quits burning coal to generate power. That will cause the price of electricity to skyrocket in the Midwest, and push up the price of other energy sources elsewhere. If you heat your house with natural gas and gag at the size of the bill this winter, get ready for even higher bills once the czar is fully in charge.

As the election showed, the majority of Americans probably want something done about climate change. Czar Browner will show us what that means and how much we have to pay. (hh)