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Energy secretary pick argues for new fuel sources
H. Josef Hebert, AP
Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who is President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for energy secretary, has been a vocal advocate for more research into alternative energy, arguing that a shift away from fossil fuels is essential to combat global warming. (11 December 2008)
Related stories from New York TimesLos Angeles TimesWashington Post
A Past President’s Advice to Obama: Act With Haste
Neil King Jr., Wall Street Journal
Jimmy Carter Says New Administration Needs to Harness the Benefits of a Crisis Mentality to Tame Energy Policy
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Almost three decades later, Jimmy Carter recalls vividly what it was like trying to get Americans to turn down their thermostats and kick the oil habit.
“It was like gnawing on a rock,” the former president says.
Now President-elect Barack Obama is heading to Washington with a set of energy goals as ambitious as Mr. Carter’s back in 1976. He promises to free the country from “the tyranny of foreign oil” and to save “our planet for our children.” He’s calling for a “spirit of service and sacrifice,” and promoting hybrid cars and wind and solar power.
But Mr. Obama must now champion his $150 billion energy plans in the face of a sinking economy and oil prices that have fallen 70% since their record mid-summer high. Forces like these have killed at least four similar presidential efforts in the past. Already, falling energy prices and the credit crisis are laying waste to scores of alternative-energy projects, from huge wind farms in Texas to biodiesel plants in Mr. Carter’s home state of Georgia.
Mr. Carter offers Mr. Obama this advice: Try to inspire Americans to see the virtue in making energy sacrifices, a notoriously tough sell, especially in the face of falling prices. Get energy legislation to Congress quickly, during the presidential honeymoon. And stick with it.
… energy activists say that the Carter administration laid the groundwork for many of today’s efforts to slash consumption and to develop renewable fuels, from biodiesel to wind and solar.
Mr. Carter created the Energy Department, pushed through the first efficiency standards for appliances, and installed 32 solar-energy panels on the White House roof — predicting at the time that they would either blaze the way toward a new energy future, or become “a museum piece.” As part of roof repairs, President Reagan later removed the solar panels, two of which are indeed ensconced in the Carter museum.
(11 December 2008)
Journalist Neil King is peak oil aware. -BA
Obama starts filling energy team
Tom Doggett, Reuters
President-elect Barack Obama will nominate Steven Chu, a Nobel physics laureate and advocate of alternative energy research, as his energy secretary, a Democratic aide said on Wednesday.
Chu, who would be the first Asian-American to lead the department, would work closely with former Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner, who will head a new council coordinating White House policy on energy, climate and environmental issues.Obama, who has said energy and environmental matters would be important to his administration, is filling out the team that will oversee them.
He wants to spend billions of dollars to promote alternative energy sources and create millions of green energy jobs.
(10 December 2008)
Related from The Oil Drum: Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Steven Chu Is Obama’s Choice For Energy Secretary.
Hurdles, opportunities for ‘green’ stimulus (video and transcript)
Monica Trauzzi, E&E TV
Center for American Progress’ Hendricks talks hurdles, opportunities for ‘green’ stimulus
What are some of the key provisions that should be included in the next economic stimulus to help boost green job growth and renewable energy projects? What hurdles exist to passing a so-called ‘green’ stimulus? Which industries should benefit from the economic package?
During today’s OnPoint, Bracken Hendricks, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, discusses his recent testimony on the upcoming stimulus before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He explains how carbon intensive industries should be addressed in the plan and assesses the level of risk associated with investing in new, green projects.
(11 December 2008)
Browner to get the nod as Obama’s top energy and climate adviser
Kate Sheppard, Gristmill
It’s looking increasingly likely that Carol Browner will be tapped to serve as “energy czar” in the Obama administration. The Washington Post first reported it Tuesday night, and now other outlets have gotten similar word from inside sources. No official word from the transition staff, however.
The position does not yet officially exist, but it’s envisioned as a new role that would help prioritize and coordinate energy and climate work across the various departments and agencies of the federal government. Browner would work closely with the White House, though it isn’t clear yet whether it would a Cabinet-level post. It’s also not yet clear whether Obama might create a new National Energy Council, as recommended by the Center for American Progress; if he does, it’s assumed his new energy czar would run it.
Only she might not actually be called an energy czar. Politico reports that the Obama team doesn’t like the term “czar,” and Browner made fun of the word “czarina” last week. Browner was head of the U.S. EPA during the entire Clinton administration, making her the longest-serving administrator in the agency’s history.
(10 December 2008)
Christine Todd Whitman talks about greening the GOP and running the EPA
Jonathan Hiskes, Grist
If Christine Todd Whitman had waited four years to publish her political memoir, she might have had this winter’s timeliest bestseller.
The former Environmental Protection Agency administrator and New Jersey governor wrote It’s My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America to urge moderate Republicans, environmentalists included, to reclaim the party from social ideologues and “extremists.” She warned that focusing on hot-button social issues might bring short-term political payoffs but would end up marginalizing the Republican Party in the long run.
The message sounds like simple common sense in the wake of the 2006 and 2008 elections, in which the GOP lost first Congress and then the White House. But Whitman published the book in January 2005, right as George W. Bush prepared for his second inauguration. Republican leaders were hardly in the mood for soul-searching and largely laughed her off.
I called her recently to ask if she wanted to say, “I told you so.”
(5 December 2008)
