Energy secretary candidate fan of efficiency, tech
President-elect Barack Obama's reported choices for the top energy and environment officials set the stage for a dramatic change in policy on energy and climate change.
Citing Democratic sources, news outlets on Wednesday reported that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu will be named energy secretary.
Nobel-prize winning physicist Steven Chu is said to have been nominated as the next energy secretary.
(Credit: Stanford University)Carol M. Browner, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, is expected to get a position overseeing energy, environmental, and climate policies. And Lisa P. Jackson, who is chief of staff for New Jersey's governor, is said to be the leading candidate for the head of the EPA.
These positions will be at the center of Obama administration's energy and environment policy, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions growth and have energy efficiency play an important role in an expected economic stimulus package.
The expected choices of Chu, Browner, and Jackson suggest that Obama intends to move aggressively on these goals.
"On policy, it's a dramatic contrast based on what I know about the policy direction that all these folks will be bringing to these positions," Daniel Lashof, director of the Climate Center at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told The Washington Post.
The top EPA post is considered a pivotal position for climate change issues as the agency could begin to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide.
Chu now heads the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and has been an advocate for government-sponsored spending on science and technology research to improve the nation's economic performance.
In the past few years, he's becoming increasingly involved in energy and climate change issues. In an interview with The Washington Post last year, he said, "I was following it just as a citizen and getting increasingly alarmed. Many of our best basic scientists [now] realize that this is getting down to a crisis situation."
He's a strong advocate of investing in energy efficiency and energy technologies to tackle climate change, noted the Wonk Room earlier this week.
In the video below, Chu speaks at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas this past summer about the dangers of climate change, including wars over natural resources like water.
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin. 
It's not a religion it's science! Do you believe in gravity? Climate change has just as much evidence, if you understand it.
And some very high profile scientists too.
Maybe people and the media will start listening to the other side now.
Human induced climate change is a total hoax.
And what kinds of "scientists" are those 600 "accredited"? Surgeons, M.D., Psychologists. Very few are in the field of climate expertise, atmospheric physics, atmospheric chemistry, paleontology, ecologists and related disciplines. How many Nobel prizes has the 600 "accredited scientists" really have to show for?
If your only child is sick and 95% of the sepcialist experts told you that with all the symptoms, signs, evidences, test diagnosis, the sickness is getting worse and quickly leading to death if you don't know anything right now, would you rather turn your back in denial and believe the other 5% because it conveniently suit yourself not to do anything about it?
Bend over and spread the wealth!
"Discuss Global Warming has been created by two meteorology enthusiasts, who are also, one an accomplished writer and the other an accomplished software developer."
Now, with the very same arguments, people are trying to debunk evolution. The problem is that the scientific method needs to be applied all the time, not when convenient. Either the sites you mention and Al gore's movies are not to be considered scientific publication, because of their simple nature of unreviewed pubblications. You seem to fall in the same sort of fallacy thinking of the current administration, where there is favorable science and unfavorable. Science, when reviewed and properly discussed, is just science. The rest i just fiction.
Unfortunately the failing state of science education in this country leaves an open door for pseudo science discussion. As myself a Physics PhD, I welcome Obama's choice. We need someone who understand the scientific process, and has real life experience with the scientific challenge. We don't need people bringing to the table their own agenda, passing that as "sound science".
Be a little more open, and don't just take the right or left side. We wont get anywhere with a bunch of people saying "OMG, Global Warming, haven't you read this BS".
I am just glad that we are getting a Nobel winner instead of UITD!!!
Cheap energy is the foundation for any economy. We need to be investing in finding environmentally friendly alternatives that are just as cheap as oil and coal now. Currently they are exponentially more expensive and that is a recipe for economic disaster.
Using tax credits or benefits to offset the cost doesn't wash either because the money has to ultimately come from somewhere. Using the government as some sort of middle man actually ends up costing us more in the long run. Using them to try to distribute inferior tech now is counter productive. It leads to corruption first off and potentially will stifle innovation through the need to be backwards compatible.
With the earth having actually cooled since 1998 I am starting to question the motivation of the omg must fix now crowd. I'd much rather take a step back put together a solid long term plan that accomplishes the goal of meeting or lowering current total energy costs while providing the environmental benefits we want. Because efficiency while nice is not an energy plan. Things like the Google plan that project no actual increase in energy production over 30 years are recipes for economic disaster.
The arrogance that man has anything to do with this is astonishing and, frankly, disgusting.
NUCLEAR POWER MAY NOT BE THE MOST CONDUCIVE TO SOLVE GLOBAL WARMING ISSUES BECAUSE IT MIGHT BE PRONE TO DISASTERS OWING TO UNFORESEEN ERRORS WHICH MIGHT REPEAT THE CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT, THE HARMFUL FALLOUT CONTAMINATION FROM WHICH MAY LAST MORE THAN A FEW CENTURIES.
In order to save our World called the Planet Earth from further Global Warming and resultant adverse climatic changes causing all the unprecedented incremental Natural Disasters globally, we must go after the Best Technologies already available long ago despite the suppression of which by selfish vested interests of Fossil Oils' Companies.
Nikola Tesla the Greatest Inventor of the last century had invented the Technologies to run cars & power stations without fuel one Century ago and these technologies might still be classified top secret, immediately after his death. It is time to resurrect Nikola Tesla's life-works to produce electrical power without fuel and sharing them as it was intended by the Greatest Inventor himself.
Stanley Meyer had invented the Technology to turn Water into unlimited amount of fuel for making Unlimited Power Supply and to run cars and all internal combustion engines with HHO "on demand basis only" and so no storage of the HHO gases is required as it is safer & cheaper to store water instead, but unfortunately he was murdered. He had about more than 40 patents in this Technology. No one Car/Technology Company has pursued this technology further by buying up his technology and put them to good use to save our this planet Earth from Global Warming causing adverse climatic changes and disasters and hardship owing to unlimited and unrestrained use of Fossil Oils and Fuels, thus releasing & emitting enormous quantities of green house gases into the atmosphere. I think some company like Google should buy this Patented Technologies from Stanley Meyer's family and make this open source technology for the world to improve on and make good use of this Technology to save our world call Planet Earth.
On a two prongs approach, also those Zero Fuel Technologies invented by Nikola Tesla should be declassified and resurrected by the next President of USA to run cars and power-stations to save our Planet Earth from destruction and doom owing to unlimited and unrestrained use of Fossil Oils and Fuels for the whole of last Century. Our World the planet earth must be saved from the exploits of greed of the vested self interests of the fossil oil & fuels producers that pumped the unlimited amount of Greenhouse gases into our common atmosphere for the last century.
http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/new/tesla.htm
http://keelynet.com/energy/teslafe1.htm
http://www.panaceauniversity.org/
History had proven that owing to selfish gains and big business interests and the many Government interventions the "Free Energy Inventions & Innovations" for the good of mankind were suppressed by vested interests such as the life works of Nikola Tesla and the strategic others were even kept classified by the US Government after his death until the present day. 100 years has been lost and that now our planet earth is placed under the stress of Global Warming owing to the unlimited use of Fossil Oils and Fossil Fuels which in the first place was not needed if the Inventions of the Greatest Inventor, Nikola Tesla were not suppressed 100 years ago. If the Governments of the Nations of World are not going to make and initiate the required changes to stop the continuing use of fossil oils and fuels with alternative fuel someone without vested interests in the Fossil Fuel Industries has got to take the great Initiative to bring out the best technology to save our planet from impending doom.
The best inventions of the Greatest Inventor like Nikola Tesla were suppressed 100 years ago, but under present day scenarios, the works of Great Inventors like Stan Meyers were suppressed as he had been murdered and many others like him were also murdered. Instead of getting support in the scientific community he was ostracized and so as others like him.
The next President of USA must come forward to lead in creating the best alternative energy sources for the good of mankind to follow the footsteps of Nikola Tesla to share his inventions for the good of all mankind. Be it free energy by Coils tapping free energy from the Magnetics Poles of the Earth, Cold Fusion or Magnetic Engines or splitting of Water through electrolysis process on demand basis to produce Brown Gas or HHO to run the present day Vehicles' Internal Combustion Engines without modifications then why not to cut the pollutions from the use of fossil oils and fuels.
K A Cheah
Independent Observer
- by Manhattan2 December 15, 2008 10:04 AM PST
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