Here is the rest of Obama's green team.
Green types are excited about Chu and today, he got rock star treatment:
Only on Capitol Hill - and maybe an elite physics department near you - does a Nobel-winning scientist garner round-the-corner lines, an overflow crowd and a cascade of flashbulbs when he steps out in public.Chu vows to fight climate change. Notice that "climate change" is now being used more often now than "global warming." That may have to do with the fact that scientists are taking into consideration all of the affects of climate change on the Earth such as wildfires, flooding... not just global warming. Obama's science head John Holdren calls it "global disruption." Here's Chu:
That was the reception this morning for Steven Chu, the physicist and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Labratory, when he showed up in a Senate committee room this morning for a hearing on his nomination as Barack Obama's energy secretary.
Hillary Clinton may have the bigger star power in the confirmation world today, as she prepares for a committee grilling on her nomination as secretary of state. But here in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, packed with energy lobbyists and non-profit executives, Chu is the one basking in a warm, bipartisan welcome.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), who chairs the energy committee, opened the floodgates of praise for Chu's academic and scientific record, saying he uniquely possesses "the vision and insight necessary to forge an energy policy for the 21st century."
The committee's top Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, told Chu "It's probably fair to say that you are uniquely poised in your ability to bring with you your background that relates the science and the technology" of the energy department. read more at The Swamp.
"Climate change is a growing and pressing problem. It is now clear that if we continue on our current path, we run the risk of dramatic, disruptive changes to our climate in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren," Chu said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Chu said the Obama administration will seek to impose a cap-and-trade system to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Under such a system, power plants, oil refineries and other industrial facilities would have to buy and sell pollution permits to spew global warming emissions. Reuters.
