Bowles said to be on Obama's list to oversee EPA

Mass. aide among many mentioned

Ian Bowles worked in the Clinton administration.

Governor Deval Patrick's top environmental chief has landed on President-elect Barack Obama's list of would-be candidates to lead the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Ian Bowles, the Patrick administration's secretary for energy and environmental affairs, has been a point person for passing legislation this year on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, setting renewable energy goals, and pushing wind power.

"I love my job; I'm not looking for a new job," Bowles said in an interview yesterday. But, he added, "There's a lot of things in life I wouldn't rule out, including trying out for the Red Sox next year."

He said he has not been contacted by the Obama camp and seemed baffled that his name was mentioned in national news reports yesterday speculating about possible Obama Cabinet picks.

"It's the season," he said.

Other candidates for the EPA post are Kathleen McGinty, former head of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection; Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board; Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas; and New Jersey environmental commissioner Lisa P. Jackson, according to national press reports.

The name that is creating the most buzz, however, is environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, who endorsed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, did not return calls for comment.

At a press conference Tuesday, Patrick was adamant that he would not take a position in the Obama administration, but said some of his staff members might be offered jobs.

"There are a number of very, very talented people in this administration who have been, or I expect will be, approached," Patrick said, without naming names. "And I am going to do what I can, consistent with my primary interest in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to share that talent with the new administration."

JudyAnn Bigby, the governor's Secretary of Health and Human Services, has also been mentioned as a possible appointee as New England director of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Bigby was traveling yesterday and could not be reached for comment.

Before joining the Patrick administration, Bowles was president and chief executive of the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, a centrist think tank in Boston. He ran for Congress in 1996, losing in the Democratic primary to US Representative William D. Delahunt.

From 1999 to 2001, he worked in the Clinton administration as associate director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and as environmental aide to the National Security Council. In 2001, he co-wrote a book on conservation, "Footprints in the Jungle."

Meanwhile, Senator John F. Kerry did not respond to requests for comment on speculation that he is seeking to become Obama's secretary of state.

Among the others mentioned in national press reports are Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor and former UN ambassador; and Richard Holbrooke, a former assistant secretary of state and United Nations ambassador.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.