What Chu Means as Energy Secretary
By appointing Steven Chu as energy secretary, President-elect Barack Obama appears to be making concrete his campaign pledge to focus on alternative energy. Obama also is continuing his streak of favoring serious personalities with star power in the cabinet.
Chu is the first Nobel laureate to serve on a presidential cabinet. (He won the prize for physics in 1997.) As the current director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he has been a high-profile advocate of an accelerated program of weaning the U.S. off of fossil fuels.
Expect a highly active, non-ideological and scientifically focused drive to develop alternatives to oil and natural gas.
I talked to Chu in May, when he described being part of an attempted "revolution" since taking over the directorship of the Berkeley lab in 2004. He said:
Chu is the first Nobel laureate to serve on a presidential cabinet. (He won the prize for physics in 1997.) As the current director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he has been a high-profile advocate of an accelerated program of weaning the U.S. off of fossil fuels.
Expect a highly active, non-ideological and scientifically focused drive to develop alternatives to oil and natural gas.
I talked to Chu in May, when he described being part of an attempted "revolution" since taking over the directorship of the Berkeley lab in 2004. He said:
When I came to the lab, I came with the idea that there are a lot of brilliant scientists here. If I could get the intellectual brainpower to come up with new technologies on the energy supply side, that could be as efficient but less costly than oil, and on energy efficiency and energy storage, that that is something we do need and need quickly. We can't wait a half-century, given what we fear with climate change.
... Do I want my guys to stop basic research and work only on energy? No because they are also working on other revolutions to take place 10 years down the road. But given the magnitude of the problem, it's okay to have some of our best and brightest working on it. In the end, the quality of the solution will depend on the quality of the people working on it.
Labels: energy secretary, obama, steven chu
2 Comments:
Good call, Steve-
Chu is an exciting choice! I hope we can keep emissions on their downward trajectory even when economic recovery begins to emerge.
We can build on the exciting development that we are consuming more than 5% less oil in ‘08 and thus carbon emissions are poised to fall 2.5% this year. See details at:
http://setenergy.org/2008/12/09/eia-predicts-first-global-oil-demand-drop-in-a-quarter-century/
Even China emissions are falling this quarter as electricity consumption falls a record in November. See details at: http://setenergy.org/2008/12/05/china-power-generation-falls-record-amount-climate-hope-alive/
The real challenge will be how we continue emissions reduction once the economy picks up again. Here's my hope for Obama and Chu to focus on in 2009: http://setenergy.org/2008/12/07/obama-co-make-2009-year-of-efficiency/
If you find the SET daily blog on major energy and climate developments useful at http://www.setenergy.org , please consider adding it to your blogroll.
Onwards to sustainability,
Dennis
COAL FIRED ELECTRICAL GENERATION PLANTS GREEN HOUSE GASES
THE ABSTRACT COLLATES AND ABSORBS THE MULTIPLE FIELDS OF ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS AND MANAGEMENT WITH SAFETY----REGULATION AND CONTROL WITH MULTI FACETED DISCIPLINES OF ENGINEERING USING PROVEN COMMODITY EQUIPMENT, DESIGN AND ENGINEERING.
RESULTING IN THE MOST TIMELY, WITH LESS COST---- EFFICIENT COLLECTION TRANSMISSION AND SAFE DISPOSAL OF GREEN HOUSE GASES EMITTED BY COAL FIRED ELECTRICAL GENERATION PLANTS IN THE USA.
ABSTRACT
In Cyril and Cushing OK most major pipelines meet. In Cement OK there are numerous oil and gas formations that could be used as injection of the carbon gases emitted. Cement is just north of Cyril. Most of those formations in and around Cement are commingled with other formations because of the uplift of the Wichita Mountains. Thus making that area ideal for the disposal of the green house gasses. But just south and east of Cyril is the Fletcher Field where there are numerous abandoned deep wells that have zones permeable to accept the green house gases. The generation plants could capture the gases emitted move them through a pipeline via a transmission company then on to Cyril OK. Cyril has the land and people needed to install manage and maintain pump stations to move the gases into the numerous areas for disposal, and to monitor the effects of the pumped gasses.
The uniqueness and synergy of this ABSTRACT is three fold
#1 OKLAHOMA has the right kind of oil and gas formations to inject carbon gases.
#2 Cyril and Cushing are the hubs for gas lines in America.
#3 OKLAHOMA has the service, sales and engineering companies to build, maintain and manage.
Abstract created by Dwight E. Baker ã 2008
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