TEAM Obama鈥檚 scientific clout has been further boosted by the choice of Nobel laureate for Secretary of Energy.
Chu, who is currently the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, shared the Nobel prize for physics in 1997 for trapping atoms using lasers. He will be the first science laureate appointed to the US cabinet.
As the energy department is the biggest US government supporter of research into the physical sciences, scientists are understandably delighted.
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Chu has been picked for his commitment to low-carbon sources of energy. Since taking the helm of the Berkeley lab in 2004, he has directed its focus to alternative energy technologies. Last week, as eco-bloggers applauded Chu鈥檚 selection, even prominent global-warming sceptic Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute conceded that Chu is 鈥渨ell qualified鈥�.
鈥淐hu has been picked for his commitment to low-carbon sources of energy鈥�
While Chu鈥檚 political skills will be tested in Washington DC, he should find an ally in Obama鈥檚 choice for Secretary of Commerce, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. A former energy secretary in his own right, Richardson has backed clean energy schemes in his home state.
鈥淚f we鈥檙e serious about changing the energy economy, the Department of Commerce is going to be extremely important,鈥� says Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, Virginia. With the appointments announced so far, she believes that the US will 鈥渉ave a team that really gets the climate and energy issue鈥�.
Heading up the team of climate heavyweights in the White House will be 鈥渃limate tsar鈥� Carol Browner, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency under President Bill Clinton. A political ally of Al Gore, she has called climate change 鈥渢he greatest challenge ever faced鈥�.
