Obama selects Nobel Laureate Steven Chu, head of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, to be Energy Sec

[JohnWxy]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121003681.html

The appointments suggest that Obama plans to make a strong push for measures to combat global warming and programs to support energy innovation. "I think it's a great team," said Daniel A. Lashof, director of the Climate Center at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "On policy, it's a dramatic contrast based on what I know about the policy direction that all these folks will be bringing to these positions."

~~
~~
Chu, the son of Chinese immigrants, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997 for his work in the "development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light." But, in an interview last year with The Washington Post, Chu said he began to turn his attention to energy and climate change several years ago. "I was following it just as a citizen and getting increasingly alarmed," he said. "Many of our best basic scientists realize that this is getting down to a crisis situation."
(more)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Steven CHu is the head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which, along with University of California Berkeley and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was selected for a research effort to develop biofuels by BP Global (Beyond Petroleum - formerly British Petroleum).

The Energy Biosciences Institute will be funded by BP with a Half Billion dollar grant.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
" University of California Berkeley, the University of Illinois and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab join research effort
BP today announced it has selected the University of California Berkeley and its partners the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to join in a $500 million research program that will explore how bioscience can be used to increase energy production and reduce the impact of energy consumption on the environment.

The Energy Biosciences Institute will perform ground-breaking research aimed at the production of new and cleaner energy, initially focusing on renewable biofuels for road transport."
(more)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

on PBS's Newshour they had a report on Chu and his focus on biofuel research - this was undoubtably important in Obama's choice of Chu as Energy Secretary and shows Obama's intent to pursue alternative energy sources is not just campaign rhetoric.


News Hour report on Chu

Developing fuel from biomass

SPENCER MICHELS: A major part of Chu's vision is to develop fuels from plants, or biomass, as scientists call it. That vision got a big boost in February when BP, one of the world's largest oil companies, decided to grant half a billion dollars to the University of California and its partners, the Berkeley lab and the University of Illinois, to create a new institute.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Botany]

1. Obama is like a cool drink of water after hours in the desert

He is going for smart people.

[JohnWxy]

2. I like the way you put that. Yeahhhhhhhhh! Here is some more on Steven Chu's selection

Steven Chu—Smart Policy, Not Politics

New America Media, Commentary, George Koo, Posted: Dec 11, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama’s appointment of Steven Chu as Energy Secretary reaffirms his commitment to change our national energy policy and make the development of alternative energy sources a top priority.

Since taking over the leadership of Lawrence Laboratory, the Nobel laureate physicist Chu has been busy promoting the need to combat global warming by shifting away from dependence on fossil fuel. His laboratory has become an active center of research on alternative energy. He has been prominent in various local and national forums stressing the urgent nature of global warming.

Chu has the technical expertise, personal charisma and passion to help Obama change the way we consume energy and heat up the atmosphere. Obama’s decision not to select a Washington insider, but someone with a firm grasp of the relevant technological issues, suggests that he is serious about finding the right person to deal with the threat of global warming.
(more)

[JohnWxy]

3. ENERGY BIOSCIENCES INSTITUTE FUNDS FIRST 49 PROJECTS

Research is being pursued in four categories related to exploring the opportunities for production of cellulosic biofuels – feedstock development, biomass depolymerization, biofuels production, and the socio-economic impacts of cellulosic biofuels development. A second initiative, concerned with fossil fuel bioprocessing, is expected to receive funding later this year.




http://www.energybiosciencesinstitute.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=184&Itemid=7