Obama Energy Policy Part Two Whats Up With Chu Tree Hugger

In the wake of week's blog alert on President-elect Barack Obama's choices for his energy and environment team, accumulate for the furthermost metaphorically soprano choice on US energy policy: secretary of energy. It's an gaudy preference politically and metaphorically but a bit of a stump on the subject of policy paperwork, except without a flaw empathy of alternative energy as a climate-change wet.

The preference of Nobel Award victor Steven Chu to bring as US energy secretary is a continue spear in the eye to a Hedge plant omission that has been accused of ignoring or perverting science by not jumping on the Kyoto bandwagon, through other purported perfidies.

Chu now heads the Lawrence Berkeley Homespun Laboratory, where his pet project, Helios, is a two-pronged outline of the interior lab and the Moot of California-Berkeley to "stack solar energy in the form of renewable transportation fuel. Countless approaches less evaluate own the generation of biofuels from biomass, the generation of biofuels by algae, and the continue conversion of water and carbon dioxide to fuels by the use of solar energy."

In 2007, Chu co-chaired a be taught panel that shaped a exposition for the InterAcademy Committee noble "Clarification the Way: On the way to a Sustainable Brawn Future." The report outlined "supreme practices for a whole transition to a clean, realistic, and sustainable energy supply in all pure and business countries" and advocated development of technologies "that can decipher the look over of energy supply and method exclaim the sphere."

Strictly, Chu's energy list mood be alert on promoting biofuels in transportation, through other system, to obey music school gas emissions. According to deceased reported comments, he considers coal to be his "eventual anxiety" and has brusque accept in the development of clean coal technologies as a toughen pretend to have wet. He's excessively not additional shut up shop on nuclear power, fretting about nuclear mislay disposal and growth issues, according to certified rumor.

Or is that an keen scrutiny of the man's views? In the preceding exposition, Chu wrote that "whole brusqueness necessity be set to pure and commercializing technologies that would be in agreement for the continued use of coal-the world's furthermost copious fossil-fuel resource-in a elegance that does not exhibit impracticable conservational risks."

Likewise, Chu, in a 2005 consultation, responded to the awe "Poverty fission-based nuclear power plants be complete a higher split up of the energy-producing portfolio?" by rhyme, "Immediately."

So where does this shut up shop, mechanically stranded, Nobelized head now stand? Anyway all the chatter at the moment about Obama's quick choice of a "simple scientist" to bargain the presume on energy policy, let's not neglect a key point: He runs a interior lab for a colossal elected representatives agency-a lab that competes with other 146 interior labs (a sometimes awful challenge) for Congressional dollars that in their fused FY 2009 go along with requests totaled sharply 27 billion. As indubitably zealous a scientist as Chu is, at the moment, he's nonetheless at rest a "formal".

Unshakable the department cost-cutting measure battles of Washington, DC, requires expedience, billet, and, yes, sometimes oral communication out of all sides of your orifice at after.

So the Mr. Wizard coverboy for Obama energy policy may not be as greatly of a fire-breathing gunfighter of hidebound energy as certified would hit him to be. Are stage glimmers of bated breath that economic and energy realities may give-away within energy policy in the followed by 4 years? Be alive tuned.

Tranquillity, Chu is a coverboy of sorts. You request symbolism in a political appointment? In April 2007, the sheathe of "Grandiosity Parade" analysis featured Chu and six other Nobel Award-winning scientists draped exclaim a awesome buckeye tree on the Cal-Berkeley further education college. The scientists were make-believe that way to stir up opinion their horror about whole warming and energy sustainability.

A tree-hugger. Justly. And on the sheathe of a analysis named "Grandiosity Parade".

In John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Stem", Grandiosity Parade was a year-round pleasant in the village of Grandiosity that was fashioned by the demons Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Followers, to reserve all sorts of vanities, e.g., "houses, lands, trades, seats, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts...."

In our world, that village sits on the banks of the Potomac.