A Scientist in the Cabinet
By Jeremy Hinton | Thursday, December 11th, 2008 | Policy
Though not yet announced, it has been leaked that Obama will be nominating Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven Chu to be his Energy Secretary. Dr. Chu is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. For a post that, since created by Carter in 1977, has been a home to career politicians and bureaucrats with little to no experience in energy, this shows a refreshing break from tradition. Chu is a strong advocate for alternative energy policies, especially regarding their impact vs fossil fuels on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. I also believe that this is the first time in at least decades that an actual scientist has been tapped for a Secretary level position. For anyone potentially doubting the coming administrations commitment to reforming our energy policies and focusing on sources of renewable energy, this should be a welcome development.
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4 Responses to "A Scientist in the Cabinet"
Granted the following is somewhat limiting to democracy and personal freedom, but would it not be nice if there was s requirement that nominees hold a PhD in their relevant subject area before being put forward for the post…
Then again, the only president to ever have a PhD was Woodrow Wilson and he gave us the federal reserve, after he campaigned against it. On the flip side he also brought back the practice of giving the state of the union address in person.
I hope this is true. we need more engineers in DC. of course I’m not biased
The degrees he possesses promises nothing.
However the interest he has had in alternative energy (with his degrees) displays some potential.
his degrees are not the sole metric to evaluate him on but if he had no degrees and more importantly no experience in this field then we should expect more of the same. this pick gives me HOPE that something will be done to push this country in the direction of energy independence.
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