Earth Equity News

Energy Secretary Steven Chu Faces Tough Menu of Choices. By Kent Garber, USNews, January 27, 2009. "Previewing the challenges awaiting him at the Department of Energy, Steven Chu recently said, 'What the world does in the coming decade will have enormous consequences that will last for centuries. It's imperative that we begin without further delay.' Quoting William Faulkner's 1950 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he added, 'Man will not merely endure; he will prevail.' That's heavy stuff for a first press conference, but given the full scope of the tasks before him, it's not really hyperbole, either. As the country's new energy secretary, Chu, himself a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, takes over not only the DOE's traditional responsibilities -- protecting nuclear weapons and cleaning up radioactive waste -- but also new ones of special importance to President Barack Obama, such as achieving rapid breakthroughs on renewable energy and helping address climate change. The question is, where does Chu start? Certainly he won't be the only person in the administration working to transform how the nation uses energy. He'll be joined by veterans like Carol Browner, the new climate czar. But the precise nature of their balance of power remains undetermined."