of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy On November 5, 2008, Browner was named to the advisory board of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. On December 15, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama named Browner as Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change. Officially known as the Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, she acted as a coordinator for environmental, energy, climate, transport and related matters for the federal government. Her position was sometimes informally described as the "Energy Czar" or the "Climate Czar". (The form "Czarina" was sometimes also used.) It did not require Senate confirmation. Her participation on the Commission for a Sustainable World Society drew criticism from some Republican members of Congress, but the Obama transition team said there was nothing wrong with it. In any case, her power and influence relied primarily on persuasion: "I don't have any independent policymaking authority. It's not like when I was at EPA and I could depend on regulation." Browner's deputy assistant was Heather Zichal, a former legislative director for Senator John Kerry. The early months of the Obama administration found her working well with the Cabinet members. She was a key negotiator between the administration and automakers in formulating the new United States emission standards in May 2009, and also was a member of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry that bailed out American automakers. She successfully urged incorporation of tens of billions of dollars for renewable energy programs into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. She was a central player in negotiation with Congress of the United States Carbon Cap and Trade Program, seemingly more so than U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and continued to stress its importance despite the Obama health care plan being the top legislative priority overall. Environmentalists viewed her as a critical liaison to the White House. By September 2009, Republican members of Congress expressed concern that her access to the president had usurped power from other agencies. She also became a brief target of fervent anti-"czar" radio and television commentator Glenn Beck, following the Van Jones resignation. In October 2009, Browner conceded that congressional passage of the cap-and-trade legislation before the end of the year was unlikely, and feared its absence would harm prospects for meaningful international agreement at the Copenhagen United Nations Climate Change Conference in December. By the