Chu: Coal and nuclear energy

Retired

Big Brutus

Mineral, Kansas

More on Stephen Chu and pressure from Republicans demanding that "...Mr. Chu be a more forceful advocate for nuclear energy."

"Chu Softens Views on Coal, Nuclear Power"

by

Stephen Power

January 14th, 2009

The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON -- Physicist Steven Chu, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to run the Department of Energy, softened previously critical comments about coal and nuclear power, and distanced himself from earlier statements that U.S. gas taxes should be higher.

Testifying before a Senate panel considering his nomination, Mr. Chu warned of "dramatic, disruptive changes to our climate system in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren" if the U.S. and other nations don't speed up efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Making vehicles and buildings more efficient -- rather than increasing access to oil on federal land -- is the best step for reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, he said. "I do not underestimate the difficulty of meeting these challenges, but I remain optimistic," Mr. Chu said.

Mr. Obama has pledged to cut U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions 80% from 1990 levels by 2050, through new legislation. He also seeks to double over three years the amount of wind, solar and geothermal generating capacity, currently around 25,000 megawatts -- steps that have aroused skepticism and resistance from some industries.

In a speech Tuesday in Washington, the CEO of ConocoPhillips, James Mulva, called for being "realistic about the cost of green energy," and suggested policy makers were in danger of "inadvertently creating unattainable public expectations."

Lawmakers who attended the hearing of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources praised Mr. Chu's credentials, which include a Nobel Prize. Lawmakers pressed Mr. Chu with competing demands, and he responded by toning down or qualifying statements made when he was running the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Republicans demanded Mr. Chu be a more forceful advocate for nuclear energy. Mr. Chu promised to accelerate the disbursal of loan guarantees that his agency is authorized to give to companies seeking to build nuclear reactors. In response to Democrats' unease about the expansion of nuclear plants, Mr. Chu said his agency needed to develop a better plan for waste disposal than the Yucca Mountain depository in Nevada.

Lawmakers from states with big coal-mining interests challenged Mr. Chu on his stance toward coal, which generates half of U.S. electric power. Mr. Chu two years ago referred to the expansion of coal-fired power plants as "my worst nightmare." On Tuesday, he offered Senators a more upbeat assessment of coal's future, calling it a "great national resource." He said he was optimistic his agency could help develop technology capable of capturing and safely storing the greenhouse-gas emissions from coal plants, and indicated he would oppose a "hard moratorium" on the construction of coal plants that lack such technology, as some Democrats advocate.

Ian Talley contributed to this article.


President-Elect Obama's science team

Steven Chu--Secretary of Energy

Steven Chu's slight change

Steven Chu's slight change

Will Steven Chu's slight change be significant? Is this the tip of the iceberg for more radical changes? I suppose time will reveal if another mistake has been made.

"Energy Nominee Shifts His Stance"

by

Matthew L. Wald

January 13th, 2009

The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Physics met politics at the confirmation hearing Tuesday for Steven Chu, the Nobel laureate scientist chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to head the Department of Energy, and the physics bent a bit, as Dr. Chu backed away slightly from earlier statements he has made — that gasoline prices should be higher, and that coal was his "nightmare."

Dr. Chu, whose last job was director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, answered an array of questions from the Senate committee on Energy and Natural Resources — about his position on new nuclear reactors (yes, at least for a few plants), offshore drilling (only as part of an energy package) and new coal-burning power plants (a few, until we figure out a better way). He told the lawmakers that "last year's rapid spike in oil and gasoline prices not only contributed to the recession we are now experiencing, it also put a huge strain on the budgets of families all across America."

Last September, though, he told The Wall Street Journal, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe." At the hearing, responding to a question about that statement, he said, "What the American family does not want is to pay an increasing fraction of their budget, their precious dollars, for energy costs, both in transportation and keeping their homes warm and lit."

The answer is efficiency, using less so that even if the price rises, the bill does not, he said.

He also said that coal, which has a wide political constituency, would continue to be used, and that the trick was to convert it to electricity cleanly.

Dr. Chu, who is 60, got a friendly welcome from the committee, but really warmed up when Senator Blanche Lincoln, Democrat of Arkansas, asked him how plants could be turned into substitutes for petroleum.

"Actually, now we're getting to science, I love this," he said, to laugher around the room. He said he has supervised research to figure out, "How do you break those plants down into the kind of sugars these little critters, the yeast and bacteria, can actually use." Gene-altered bacteria have been developed to turn sugar into substitutes for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, he said.

Several senators reiterated the idea that the energy department faced terrific scientific challenges, and that a Nobel physicist was the appropriate person to head it. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who introduced him to the committee, referred to him as "one of the great brilliant thinkers of his generation." Around Washington, Dr. Chu draws wide approval for stressing energy efficiency and new technology as approaches to the problems of energy prices and global warming.

But his science-based frankness sometimes contrasts with ordinary energy politics, which are often more centered on narrower economic interests.

For example, in a presentation at Berkeley in April 2007, now preserved on YouTube, he declared, "coal is my worst nightmare," words previous energy secretaries would be unlikely to utter.

"We have lots of fossil fuel," he said in that presentation. "That's really both good and bad news. We won't run out of energy but there's enough carbon in the ground to really cook us."

And he has said frankly that some of the technologies that federal dollars are pursuing would be nice to have, but are not today ready for use, either because they are too expensive to be practical, or not demonstrated to be safe. In this category he puts sequestering the carbon dioxide from power plants, recycling nuclear fuel to reduce its volume and recover unused fuel, and making ethanol from cellulose, which is essentially woody wastes or non-crop plants.

In the course of the hearing, the main mission of the department — making, maintaining and dismantling nuclear weapons, and cleaning up from six decades of nuclear weapon production — got intermittent mention. According to a report on nuclear weapons spending by Stephen I. Schwartz and sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment, the budget for nuclear weapons in 2008 was over $52 billion. Robert Alvarez, who was a policy advisor to the energy secretary in the Clinton administration, said in an interview that the department is spending about 11 times more money on nuclear weapons than on energy conservation.

Dr. Chu's plans for steps that would reduce consumption of oil and electricity may come at an inopportune moment, as consumption is falling anyway, taking pressure off the electric grid and other energy systems. The Energy Information Administraton, which analyzes data for the department, predicted on Tuesday that for 2009, electricity consumption would fall 0.5 percent, and oil product consumption by 2 percent. Dr. Chu faces a variety of conflicting mandates. For example, he said that using more renewable energy is a national priority and thus will require a national electric grid. To help create such a grid, a 2005 law gives the department the authority to designate high-priority corridors, to overrule local objections to new power lines. But Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat, complained that the department had designated his entire state, New Jersey, as part of a corridor. Mr. Chu promised to investigate.

Another problem is nuclear waste. Dr. Chu repeatedly said that of the carbon-free power generation in this country, 70 percent is nuclear. But Mr. Obama has expressed deep skepticism about the plan to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, the site near Las Vegas that the government has worked for 20 years to develop. A solution would have to be found, Dr. Chu said, but construction of new plants should resume now, after a hiatus of 30 years, even before the solution is developed.

President-Elect Obama's science team

The primary players of Obama's science team: Steven Chu, John Holdren, and Jane Lubchenco. Will it make a difference?

Remarks of the President-Elect Barack Obama

Science Team Rollout Radio Address

December 17th, 2008

Chicago, Illinois

Over the past few weeks, Vice President-Elect Biden and I have announced some of the leaders who will advise us as we seek to meet America’s twenty-first century challenges, from strengthening our security, to rebuilding our economy, to preserving our planet for our children and grandchildren. Today, I am pleased to announce members of my science and technology team whose work will be critical to these efforts.

Whether it’s the science to slow global warming; the technology to protect our troops and confront bioterror and weapons of mass destruction; the research to find life-saving cures; or the innovations to remake our industries and create twenty-first century jobs—today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation. It is time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology.

Right now, in labs, classrooms and companies across America, our leading minds are hard at work chasing the next big idea, on the cusp of breakthroughs that could revolutionize our lives. But history tells us that they cannot do it alone. From landing on the moon, to sequencing the human genome, to inventing the Internet, America has been the first to cross that new frontier because we had leaders who paved the way: leaders like President Kennedy, who inspired us to push the boundaries of the known world and achieve the impossible; leaders who not only invested in our scientists, but who respected the integrity of the scientific process.

Because the truth is that promoting science isn’t just about providing resources—it’s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient—especially when it’s inconvenient. Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us. That will be my goal as President of the United States—and I could not have a better team to guide me in this work.

Dr. John Holdren has agreed to serve as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. John is a professor and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, as well as President and Director of the Woods Hole Research Center. A physicist renowned for his work on climate and energy, he’s received numerous honors and awards for his contributions and has been one of the most passionate and persistent voices of our time about the growing threat of climate change. I look forward to his wise counsel in the years ahead.

John will also serve as a Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology—or PCAST—as will Dr. Harold Varmus and Dr. Eric Lander. Together, they will work to remake PCAST into a vigorous external advisory council that will shape my thinking on the scientific aspects of my policy priorities.

Dr. Varmus is no stranger to this work. He is not just a path-breaking scientist, having won a Nobel Prize for his research on the causes of cancer—he also served as Director of the National Institutes of Health during the Clinton Administration. I am grateful he has answered the call to serve once again.

Dr. Eric Lander is the Founding Director of the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard and was one of the driving forces behind mapping the human genome—one of the greatest scientific achievements in history. I know he will be a powerful voice in my Administration as we seek to find the causes and cures of our most devastating diseases.

Finally, Dr. Jane Lubchenco has accepted my nomination as the Administrator of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is devoted to conserving our marine and coastal resources and monitoring our weather. An internationally known environmental scientist and ecologist and former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Jane has advised the President and Congress on scientific matters, and I am confident she will provide passionate and dedicated leadership at NOAA.

Working with these leaders, we will seek to draw on the power of science to both meet our challenges across the globe and revitalize our economy here at home. And I’ll be speaking more after the New Year about how my Administration will engage leaders in the technology community and harness technology and innovation to create jobs, enhance America’s competitiveness and advance our national priorities.

I am confident that if we recommit ourselves to discovery; if we support science education to create the next generation of scientists and engineers right here in America; if we have the vision to believe and invest in things unseen, then we can lead the world into a new future of peace and prosperity.

Thank you.

Steven Chu--Secretary of Energy

Steven Chu

President elect Barack Obama has a man of science in his cabinet now--Steven Chu...beats thoughts of California's Govenor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"Obama makes pick for energy chief, sources say"

by

Ed Henry

December 10th, 2008

CNNPolitics.com

President-elect Barack Obama is likely to name Steven Chu, a physicist who runs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as his energy secretary, three Democratic officials close to the transition told CNN.

The three officials said that the announcement is expected next week in Chicago, Illinois, and that Obama will also name Carol Browner, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Clinton administration, as the newly created "climate czar" inside the White House itself.

Chu won the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics and is highly respected in energy circles. But some Democrats have privately expressed concern that Chu has no political experience as he takes on the monumental task of passing a landmark energy reform bill early next year.

Although Browner is seen as a shrewd inside player who could help the incoming energy secretary navigate Capitol Hill, Obama will face questions about how effective his team will be going up against oil companies and other special interests that do not want to change the status quo.

"Energy is going to be a huge fight," one Democratic official said. "They need someone with the gravitas and force of personality to make it happen."

Democrats have privately floated some other big names for energy secretary in recent days, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

But a source close to Schwarzenegger said the governor wants to serve out the rest of his term in the Golden State.

A source close to Powell said the retired general will take "no formal Cabinet role" in an Obama administration but is leaving the door open to an informal troubleshooting role -- such as Mideast envoy -- if the incoming president has a specific mission that needs to be filled.

Steven Chu