Hopeful Prospects for Green Energy

Editor's Note

Special Issue By: Bob Cochnar Volume A Number 1

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Despite the serious economic travail that currently afflicts the country, with no end in sight, the prospects for alternative energy are remarkably bright. Energy figures prominently in the new administration's stimulus package as a job producer (jobs that can't be exported) and the way to lessen our dependence on imported oil.

Steven Chu, the incoming Secretary of Energy, discussed his—and President Obama's—vision at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In his prepared testimony, he saluted the committee:
"In many ways," he said, "President Obama's plan builds on the good work of this committee in recent years: a greater commitment to wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable energy sources; aggressive efforts to increase energy efficiency of our appliances and buildings; more fuel efficient cars and trucks, and a push to develop plug-in hybrids; greater investment in technology to capture and store carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants; a continued commitment to nuclear power and a long-term plan for waste management and disposal; responsible development of domestic oil and natural gas; increased commitment to research and development of new energy technologies; a smarter, more robust transmission and distribution system; and a cap-and-trade system to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions."

Which pretty much mirrors the current thinking of the energy committee, whose goals are outlined by its chairman, Senator Jeff Bingaman, beginning on Page 7.

As former senate majority leader, Trent Lott (the retired Republican senator from Mississippi) says, getting the Senate together on just about anything is like herding cats. I think he'd exempt the energy committee from that characterization, since over the years it has functioned with a significant amount of bipartisanship. That's good news for forthcoming energy bills. Of course, getting bills out of the committee and through the Senate (with companion bills emanating from the House) is something else again. We'll just have to see how far bipartisanship can go.

Dr. Chu, who most recently was director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and thus knows his way around the DOE bureaucracy, at his hearing also said:

"The elements of President Obama's plan will put us on a course to a better energy and environmental future, create new jobs and industries, restore U.S. energy technology leadership and help form the foundation for future economic prosperity.

"In pursuing this goal, I will be building on my work as the director of the Lawrence Berkeley lab. I have worked to focus the lab on our energy problems. In particular, I have challenged some of the best scientists at the Berkeley lab to turn their attention to the energy and climate change problem and to bridge the gap between the mission-oriented science that the Office of Science does so well and the applied research that leads to energy innovation. I have also worked to partner with academia and industry. I know that these efforts are working, and I want to extend this approach to an even greater extent throughout the department's network of national laboratories where 30,000 scientists and engineers are at work performing cutting-edge research."

Chu has a job and a half; we wish him well.