Breaking: Steven Chu selected as Energy Secretary

[TeamJordan23]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama will nominate Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as his Energy Secretary, CNN reported on Wednesday.

Chu shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics and is a former chairman of the physics department at Stanford University in California and head of the electronics research laboratory at Bell Labs.

The Lawrence Berkeley Web site says Chu was an early advocate for finding scientific solutions to climate change and has guided the laboratory on a new mission to become the world leader in alternative and renewable energy research, particularly the development of carbon-neutral sources of energy.

That experience will be useful as the next energy secretary, as Obama wants to spend billions of dollars to promote alternative energy sources and create millions of green energy jobs.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4B970320081210

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. WHAT? HOW DARE HE?

HOW DARE Obama pick someone who actually understands energy!

[whistler162]

14. WORSER.... 1997 was during the Clinton years... OHNOES!!!!

[Retrograde]

59. Yeah, doesn't Obama know that seat should go to an oilman?

Preferably from Haliburton?

This is a great choice: someone with both scientific and administrative experience (you think running UC Berkeley is easy?).

ETA: Sorry, that should be Lawrence Berkeley Labs - a different place, but just as politically charged a position.

[Sanity Claws]

2. No more faith-based Science -- Yippee!!

[sharp_stick]

4. I wonder if he's going

to ban the prayers asking Gawd to place the "oil under our feet". I shit you not, that was happening. I'll see if I can find a link but it's really old.

Either that or it's all a fever dream or LSD flashback. I sometimes have issues telling them apart. ;-)

[terrya]

11. I'm eager to see who Obama names as his White House Science Adviser.

[yeswecanandwedid]

27. So true. nt

[Arkana]

62. Himself. Obama's our first geek President.

[monmouth]

3. I worked for Bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ back in the early 60s...Gone now..n/t

[Thrill]

5. Thats exciting

[Poiuyt]

6. I thought it would be Sarah Palin

John McCain said that said Palin “knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.”

[redstate_democrat]

25. lol

[Undercurrent]

7. Good move!

A very capable man on top of being brilliant, and extremely well educated. Lawrence Berkeley has thousands of employees so he has good managerial skills on top of his other qualifications.


Just super!

[terrya]

8. This is turning into one of the most impressive Presidential Cabinets in history.

I'm dazzled by his choices so far.

[DCBob]

22. Me too!

Obama is making all the right moves, IMO.

[countingbluecars]

9. Intelligent people back in charge!

This is wonderful!

[yeswecanandwedid]

28. amen to that. nt

[Joanne98]

10. Bell Labs?

[karynnj]

20. Bell Labs was the research arm of AT&T

Before AT&T was broken up it was easily the premiere Research organization in the country. The transistor was invented there. Arno Penzias, who got the Nobel Prize for the Big Bang theory worked there. After divestiture, some of it stayed with AT&T, then at a later point it was spun off and became Lucent.

[yeswecanandwedid]

36. This video is good, it goes into the bell labs stuff.

at about 25:30 marker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-7gWsoXtUw

[karynnj]

57. Thank you so much for this

I am completely excited that a person like this was chosen to head Energy. If you think of it, just the sheer joy he shows of finding things that work and the love of the way that Bell Labs intentionally threw really smart people together from different fields that created all the synergies that it did. I love his comment that many things came out of lunch room discussions.

[yeswecanandwedid]

61. You're welcome, and I agree with your comments. nt

[ClarkUSA]

12. Climate scientists everywhere rejoice. Exxon-Mobil weeps.

;)

[MoonRiver]

13. This is just so wonderful!

Polar bears, please hang on. I have been in such despair, but now maybe we can start to turn the nightmare around for ourselves and our fellow sentient beings.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. I hope he gets more money for all 9 national labs.

:thumbsup:

[Hippo_Tron]

16. Sounds great, but what does he think about cardboard groping?

:evilgrin:

[FrenchieCat]

17. 2nd Berkeley Resident selected to come into the Obama Administration......

Excellent!

Go Berkeley! (right here where I am!) :woohoo:

[rvablue]

44. Went to grad school at Cal....while it's OK in moderation, hope that is

administration isn't too stacked with Berkeley folks......some of them can have the tendency to be as single-focused and close-minded as the RW.

[mwei924]

46. Isn't that mostly the residents of Berkeley, not the school?

Like the tree sitters were mostly just residents of Berkeley, not associated with the University much.

[rvablue]

47. No, no .... it's not just the "tree sitters", it was a wonderful place to live

and I would love to go back but it's the polar equivalent of a bigoted, racist, no-thinking Republican living in Alabama.....it doesn't take a lot of thought, everybody thinks like you do, and if you say or do anything differently, you are a "commie" or some other bad name.

In Berkeley, you fall in line really quickly, or you are shunned.

The school, the city, the society....the whole deal.

But, like I said, because I agreed 90% of the time, I loved it there.

[mwei924]

48. I have friends at Berkeley and they've said that it's not that much more liberal than ...

.. like UCLA or other schools. In fact, I've heard that the Berkeley Republicans Club is actually a pretty big force there. Not to mention, it's the home of Haas Business School (one of my friends is in it), which is like the #2 undergrad business program in the country. And most of the students (undergrads) are barely even politically active. Berkeley has a very large sector of chemistry/physics/engineering students who aren't active in politics much.

I visited the school in my senior year of HS after I was accepted, and found most of the students and professors to be rather apolitical from my expectations. Although I mostly visited their Biology and Chemistry departments. But I ended up going a little further from home. Still, not a small number of kids from my High School (which is located in like the Northern California version of an O.C. Republican stronghold) ended up going to Berkeley because of their business and engineering schools.

I think it's just changed a lot from the 60s and 70s version of Berkeley.

[rvablue]

49. I wasn't there in the 60s and 70s.....it was only a few years ago...and I'm not

talking about political activists, I'm talking about casual conversation, party talk, special guests that get invited on campus, etc., etc., etc.

Maybe it didn't strike you as you only visited and like me you are on DU, so we share a political mindset.

As far as the Repub. Club -- a big force -- I don't think so...........maybe vocal. Not powerful and not a force to be contended with.

There is a culture of group think that's all I'm saying.

FYI: This has zero to do with the choice of Chu. I'm thrilled about that. Just wouldn't want Obama's cabinet packed with Berkeley people, from the city or the school, we need to be a little more diverse than that.

[mwei924]

50. I happen to know a lot of conservative people who go there though.

Maybe because my high school was in a relatively conservative area. But from what I hear, the business school is definitely not some liberal bastion. I don't know much about their other departments like Poli Sci or anything though.

And it seems the faculty is not any more liberal than a typical university, especially a public university. I mean, they employed Arthur Jensen until he retired.

[rvablue]

51. Maybe you should tell me the places you've lived and experienced and even

though I've spent a weekend there, I'll lecture you about what it was like.

[mwei924]

52. Hometown: Alamo, CA

I interned over a summer in Berkeley (lived at home, commuted the 25-ish minutes), though it was mostly inside a lab. People I met never really talked about politics. Maybe my experience there has largely been in a department that isn't political at all. My dad also has a lot of colleagues he often works with at UC Berkeley, again in the heavy science department though.

I guess I'm just wondering why a lot of scientists who work at Berkeley get labeled as "hippies" when they're not like that at all.

[rvablue]

54. Never heard of Alamo, CA so I googled....it's a good thing you came out of there

with a decent head on your shoulders.

Two of my roommates in undergrad were from Danville and were the worst racists I've ever been exposed to my entire life. It was a bad 9 months.

Hence, why you might have heard a lot of people tagging Berkeley faculty with the freeperish: "hippies."

And I think beyond that we're getting close to hijacking this thread.

[mwei924]

56. Actually Danville is becoming more heavily Asian-American now.

It's more socially conservative than SF (quite a few Yes on Prop 8 stickers), but it's mostly country club fat cat types. It's very Orange Country like.

Jeff Tedford (Cal football coach) actually lives in Danville, in the Blackhawk gated-community. His son went to my high school and graduated in my year.

[Undercurrent]

18. Berkeley Lab View

has quite a bit of info on our next Energy Secretary.
http://www.lbl.gov/Publications/Currents/Archive/Jun-25-2004.html





(cool pic of Chu from another site)

[Occam Bandage]

19. Another fantastic choice. Obama hasn't hit a sour note yet.

[jhain]

21. The Brain Drain is DONE

THANK YOU , President Obama, for bringing back intelligence to America!!!!!!!!!

[mwei924]

23. OMG OMG! I've met him!!!!

Awesome choice.

[Posteritatis]

43. What's your take on him? (nt)

[mwei924]

45. I interned at the Lawrence Lab.

Met him briefly, but he seemed pretty cool.

[sofa king]

24. Now there's a thought: appointing a real live scientist for the job.

Brilliant!

[yeswecanandwedid]

29. Who woulda' thunk it!! nt

[applegrove]

26. A brilliant move. Imagine an energy secretary who could understand

early research into alternatives. I just get happier and happier with Obama's Presidency.

[yeswecanandwedid]

30. I think this is one of O's more liberal picks. It's the..

First pick that really got me soaring. I mean, Hillary was okay, but she is still a politician, it's nice to see some really smart people, not just attorneys, getting put in key positions. Obama has impressed me with this choice.

[applegrove]

31. And we are impressed before this guy has even done anything. Think how impressed we

will be day in and day out...as he does his job. Oh we are a long way from those horrible days with the Bush Administration. What a relief it is.

[yeswecanandwedid]

32. Not sure yet, but check this out..

Here is a video interview on CNN, I want to learn about this guy.

They had me at physicist, to me that equals thirst for knowledge, not power.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-7gWsoXtUw

[yeswecanandwedid]

33. So if this guy is the head of energy...

Maybe Obama is going to come true on some renewable energy sources within the states. I mean, why get a physicist if you just wanted to mess with more oil.

[applegrove]

34. "equals thirst for knowledge, not power" was what I was trying to say about

this pick vs. what Bush did.

[yeswecanandwedid]

35. Watch that video URL, FF to 25:45 and listen for a minute or so.. nt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-7gWsoXtUw

[applegrove]

37. Thanks for posting the link.

[yeswecanandwedid]

40. you're welcome, glad I could contribute. nt

[yeswecanandwedid]

39. This guy knows how to find oil better than others, 42:20 minute marker. nt

[Posteritatis]

41. He's caused some head-explodey on the right too

The freepers' reaction is kind of hilarious. They aren't even bothering to conceal either the xenophobia or the dumb-is-good memes there. Bahaha.

[Jennicut]

38. Science is back baby!

[mvd]

42. Great pick!

I really like quite a few of Obama's moves.. this one, the public works project, Susan Rice, Eric K. Shinseki - there will be more good moves even before the inauguration.

[political_Dem]

53. A wonderful pick. I will not complain here either.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

55. What a great choice!

Finally...a REAL scientist!

[Bjorn Against]

58. This looks like a good pick...

I don't know much about Chu, but to have an actual Nobel prize winning scientist that has done extensive work on combatting global warming and promoting renewable energy as Energy Secretary certainly sounds great.

I have been critical of a couple of other Obama cabinet picks, but this is one I think I will be able to fully get behind. I also think we will likely have to all fully get behind him because I have a feeling the Republicans won't be happy about an energy secretary that is not in the pocket of big oil. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a tough confirmation battle, and if it is we will need to rally support for it.

[DevonRex]

60. Wonderful pick. Intelligence is back in style. Yeah! nt