http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSTRE4B970320081210
By Kara Altshuler
Why is this significant? First of all, Dr. Chu is a scientist, not a lobbyist or former politician. This is significant because it represents a sea change in Washington politics.
For example, our current Secretary of Energy is Dr. Samuel Bodman, who was previously the Deputy Secretary of Treasury. Now Bodman's no idiot, he has a B.S. and a Sc.D. in chemical engineering, but his biography shows that after a brief stint as a professor, he switched to working for venture capital firms. So, he was more suited to helping with financial issues than he was being a big thinker regarding the pressing energy issues of our lifetime.
The Secretary of Energy before him? Spencer Abraham--lawyer, former Michigan Senator, and one of the founders of the Federalist Society--he's the one who basically let Cheney and the oil/gas industries run amok. So, for the last 8 years, we've been in the weeds, folks.
Dr. Chu, however, is completely suited to the task for which he has been chosen. He won the Nobel prize in physics in 1997 for work he did at AT&T/Bell Labs. He has been a professor at Stanford and UC Berkeley. Since 2004, he's been the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. While there, he and his team have aggressively been pursuing ways to combat global warming, and they've come up with some great results. He's big on energy efficiency--and he shows how research and development in this area can gain more energy than current alternative energy production in the US. How nice it will be to finally have someone in this Cabinet position with the intelligence to tackle the problems ahead.
http://www.lbl.gov/Publications/Director/
Once again, President-elect Obama shows that he's not paying lip service to the idea of change. We are going in a new direction come Jan. 20, 2009, and Dr. Chu is going to help.
By Kara Altshuler
Why is this significant? First of all, Dr. Chu is a scientist, not a lobbyist or former politician. This is significant because it represents a sea change in Washington politics.
For example, our current Secretary of Energy is Dr. Samuel Bodman, who was previously the Deputy Secretary of Treasury. Now Bodman's no idiot, he has a B.S. and a Sc.D. in chemical engineering, but his biography shows that after a brief stint as a professor, he switched to working for venture capital firms. So, he was more suited to helping with financial issues than he was being a big thinker regarding the pressing energy issues of our lifetime.
The Secretary of Energy before him? Spencer Abraham--lawyer, former Michigan Senator, and one of the founders of the Federalist Society--he's the one who basically let Cheney and the oil/gas industries run amok. So, for the last 8 years, we've been in the weeds, folks.
Dr. Chu, however, is completely suited to the task for which he has been chosen. He won the Nobel prize in physics in 1997 for work he did at AT&T/Bell Labs. He has been a professor at Stanford and UC Berkeley. Since 2004, he's been the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. While there, he and his team have aggressively been pursuing ways to combat global warming, and they've come up with some great results. He's big on energy efficiency--and he shows how research and development in this area can gain more energy than current alternative energy production in the US. How nice it will be to finally have someone in this Cabinet position with the intelligence to tackle the problems ahead.
http://www.lbl.gov/Publications/Director/
Once again, President-elect Obama shows that he's not paying lip service to the idea of change. We are going in a new direction come Jan. 20, 2009, and Dr. Chu is going to help.
Democracy Watch is a blog devoted to debunking extreme right wing Republican rhetoric, media, printed material, blogs, videos and all campaign TV ads that are untrue.
Hey Kara,
There are more expert California folks being named, too. This is a good start.
Absolutely. Nancy Sutley is an interesting choice to head the CEQ. Which others have been confirmed? I'm hoping there will be a place for Mary Nichols, but she may want to stay on the CARB to be effective here at home.
I'm on the fence about Lisa Jackson as EPA head. She's got a mixed bag of comments coming from shareholders--I know people in the EPA, so it will be easy enough to get a handle on whether she'll truly champion the science or whether politics will be preeminent in agency decisions.
I have been very, very pleased with Obama's cabinet appointments.
Things have been looking up on the environmental front since we took back the U.S. Senate in 2006 and booted global warming denier James Inhofe and put in Barbara Boxer as head of the Senate Environment Committee.
I loved what she told Inhofe when he tried to cut off Al Gore in 2007: "You're not making the rules - you used to when you did this. You don't do this any more."
The question now, of course, becomes how are we going to afford all of these wonderful initiatives that Obama has proposed and will be trying to implement (in a horrible economy) through guys like Tom Daschle and Steven Chu, like providing health care coverage for all Americans, imposing additional environmental requirements and restrictions on already suffering businesses, etc.?
Barbara Boxer lives in the same fantasy world as Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, so I don't have much confidence that our congressional leaders are going to help get us there either.
The UAW did itself no favors either in this whole debacle, making demands that could never possibly be met. Inhofe was at least perceptive enough to recognize that the union needed to give a little too or this bailout deal was going down in flames, which it did.
The antipathy to unions was at the core of the whole debate on the bailout.
Well, as for affording the wonderful initiatives, I can think of a huge chunk of change we'll save just by ending the warmongering in Iraq.
As for the UAW, Gettelfinger has given up concessions over and over during previous crises with this industry. The real problem is Senate Republicans just couldn't stomach the real solution to the problem, which is to enact sacrifices from all shareholders. They only want to get blood from the UAW. They can't stand to force management of the Big Three to do what the Japanese car company execs do, which is agree to be compensated at a rate that is 15-20 times what the average factory worker is paid, rather than 350 times what the average worker is paid.
And the problem isn't just bloated salaries and perks at the Big Three, but goes all the way through the supply line.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/auto-industry-executive-compensation-rankles-and-for-good-reason/
Marie,
I love watching the clip from that exchange. Senator Boxer waves the gavel around saying "Elections have consequences" and the great words you quoted. Inhofe just sits there steaming.......it's priceless.
We could solve our energy problem just by bottling all of Inhofe's hot air.
Not sure how anyone (with a straight face) can look upon Barbara Boxer as part of the solution to the economic problems this country is facing.
She's clearly part of the problem and as entrenched as the Pelosi & Reid team (worse public approval ratings than George Bush), in terms of living in the past and not being able to look past the desires of the special interests (unions and big labor lobbyists) to get the U.S. economy back on track.
My sincerest condolences to President-elect Obama on the prospects of trying to work with this bunch in advancing his initiatives to move our country forward.
Flamo, this post is about environmental issues and alternative energy, not the UAW and big labor et al. But of course we know organized labor is the perpetual rightwing bogeyman.
If we don't take care of our planet there won't be an economy to worry about. They go hand in hand.
Thanks Missing the Point, I couldn't agree more.
The environment is fine. In fact, this has been one of the coldest years on record. Global cooling, anyone?
The primary consideration for the Congress and the President at this time is (and should be) the economy. President-elect Obama certainly recognizes this. Wish I could say the same for Congress.
The UAW & big labor have been in bed with the Democrats in Congress for years. Unfortunately, I don't see this changing anytime soon, with Pelosi and her cronies in charge.
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