At face value, the Obama administration has moved decisively away from connections with Big Oil. While the former Bush administration contained several officials with close ties to the industry, most notably Vice President Dick Cheney, Obama's inner circle has none. Indeed, the appointment of a clutch of senior energy officials with deep ties to the environmental community has the oil and gas industry wondering if the White House plans to strangle future fossil-fuel development in the US.

Many of Obama's campaign promises regarding environmental policy -- 10% of electricity production coming from renewable energy sources by 2012; a carbon trading system cutting emissions 80% by 2050 -- carry the scent of implausibility, given the sick state of US and world economies. Yet each of his first half-dozen appointments with direct influence on energy regulation shows a strong bias against fossil-fuel development.

By choosing Carol Browner as his "energy czar" to coordinate national environmental and energy policy, Obama made clear his desire for climate change legislation. Browner spent eight years as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Bill Clinton, worked as legislative director for Al Gore in the late 1980s and has been a leading supporter of a legislated emissions market. She also acted as professional mentor to several senior appointees, including Lisa Jackson, the new EPA chief, and Nancy Sutley, now head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

"We've had the opportunity to sit down with Carol and her transition team about the role with oil and gas,'' says Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry trade association. "They listened intently and asked good, thoughtful questions, and so we're still giving them the benefit of the doubt. It's one thing to talk rhetoric during a campaign and another thing to operate a government.''

Energy Secretary Stephen Chu is a strong supporter of biofuels, advocating cellulosic ethanol research and production, while White House Science Advisor John Holdren has studied climate change for decades. Only Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has hands-on experience in natural resource development, as a rancher. He has opposed leasing additional oil shale prospects in the Rocky Mountains unless water issues were resolved, and this week canceled a sale of oil and gas leases near Utah's national parks.

Shared Vision

What separates these appointments from Obama's economic and national security teams is the degree of common purpose; all are squarely on the same page as the president. Obama's core support base, which is not the same as the Democratic Party's, is deeply motivated by concern about the environment and antipathy to corporate oil, analysts say. His appointments have sought to balance an essentially radical energy agenda with the more pragmatic and centrist strains of other departments.

To be sure, public support for "greener'' forms of energy has been growing for decades and even found its way into the Bush administration. But signals abound that the fall elections and the deep economic crisis have changed the political stakes and calculus in Washington, boosting the possibility that Obama's call to "set aside childish things'' may become more than lofty rhetoric. What's clear is that there is strong momentum to tackle energy challenges head on and set the country on a transitional process. Yet two main drivers -- tackling climate change and oil import dependence -- are somewhat contradictory, with the latter to some extent relying on domestic oil and gas production.

The key will be how Obama reconciles these contradictions, and whether he will sacrifice parts of the shared vision among his energy officials if and when they come into direct confrontation with senior members of his foreign policy and economic teams. In Washington, political trade-offs -- expanded access to offshore lease sales in return for long-term carbon caps, for example -- are needed whenever serious change is proposed.

Certainly the new administration does not seem averse to conventional natural gas development, and portions of the seafloor off the Florida and Virginia coasts could become available for exploration. In his campaign, Obama also supported a $30 billion gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to markets in the lower 48 states. Calling the administration "anti-oil strikes me as too strong,'' says David Pumphrey, energy analyst at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The flip side to it is they are for transformation of the energy system and they have not embraced the idea that we can produce our way out of dependence on foreign oil.''

However, much of the administration's energy policy will hinge on climate change legislation, which if enacted could cause future oil demand growth to plateau. Concurrent development of a national "smart'' electricity grid could also see more vehicles running on electric power. "The administration's ultimate policy is, 'Let's make fossil energy so expensive, it makes the alternatives more attractive,'" says Dan Kish of the Institute for Energy Research. "There clearly is a mindset and desire with the administration to make these markets work.''

Bill Murray, Washington

Compass Points

• SIGNIFICANCE: The Obama energy team is full of environmentalists with a profound aversion to fossil fuel use, underpinned by global warming fears. While US oil and gas exploration opportunities may still grow in the short term, the industry is coming to terms with a political landscape that puts crude oil at a distinct disadvantage.

• CONTEXT: Climate change legislation currently under consideration in Congress will be the battering ram of energy policy, allowing federal regulators to put a price on carbon and, ultimately, a lid on crude oil demand.

• NEXT: Watch for climate change legislation to pass the most environmentally minded committees by May, with the goal of becoming law by end-year. If legislation gets bogged down in less ideological committees -- energy, finance, and ways and means -- over the summer, this suggests other senior advisers and legislators have gotten the president's ear. Prepare, then, for a battle royal in the fall.