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[[Image:SecretaryChu.jpg|right|thumb|150px| Secretary of Energy Steven Chu]]
[[Image:SecretaryChu.jpg|right|thumb|150px| Secretary of Energy Steven Chu]]
'''Steven Chu''' (b. 1948; - ) born in St. Louis, [[Missouri]], he is a 1997 Nobel Prize-winning physicist, former director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and [[Barack Hussein Obama]]'s Energy Secretary. Chu is known for his global warming alarmism. Chu said, "Coal is My Worst Nightmare." <ref>http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/12/11/steven-chu-coal-is-my-worst-nightmare/</ref>
'''Steven Chu''' (b. 1948; - ) born in St. Louis, [[Missouri]], he is a 1997 Nobel Prize-winning physicist, former director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Obama Administration's Secretary of Energy. The Department of Energy is at the center of U.S. efforts to end our dependence on foreign oil, roll back climate change and create new "green" jobs, using stimulus funds already passed by Congress. He seeks technological solutions to energy issues:<ref> Zakaria (2009)</ref>
:"Our dependency on foreign oil, our national security, our economic prosperity, and the climate-change issues—these aren't ultimately political questions. This is a way into the 21st century, a way to regain our technological leadership, regain our high- quality manufacturing leadership that we have lost, all of these things, as well as helping save the world."
==Views on Energy and Transportation==
==Views on Energy and Transportation==
* Chu is strongly promoting engineering solutions, explaining in April 2009, "We haven't taken full advantage of the technologies that exist today. They haven't been integrated into making smarter buildings that can be 60, 80 percent more energy-efficient than existing buildings."<ref> Zakaria (2009)</ref>
Chu said, "Coal is My Worst Nightmare." <ref>http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/12/11/steven-chu-coal-is-my-worst-nightmare/</ref> If coal is to stay part of the world’s energy mix, he says, clean-coal technologies must be developed. But he’s not optimistic: "It’s not guaranteed we have a solution for coal," he concluded, given the sheer scope of the challenge of economically storing billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions underground. Asked how to get off coal he responded:<ref>Zakaria (2009)</ref>
:"We can have renewables. We have nuclear power. During the nighttime when there's less demand for electricity, we'll be plugging our cars into these and charging them up so that that nuclear power can be used in a much better way. Storage technology will be incredibly useful and needed as transient renewables become a larger portion of our energy budget."
In October 2008, before Obama was elected, Chu spoke about how uneconomical battery-powered cars are. Chu said, "Current batteries for hybrid and electric cars last just five to six years, take a car only 40 miles on a charge—and cost $10,000. These aren’t going to sweep the market." <ref>http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/37422/title/U.S._must_invest_in_technologies_to_avoid_energy_crisis</ref>
In October 2008, before Obama was elected, Chu spoke about how uneconomical battery-powered cars are. Chu said, "Current batteries for hybrid and electric cars last just five to six years, take a car only 40 miles on a charge—and cost $10,000. These aren’t going to sweep the market." <ref>http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/37422/title/U.S._must_invest_in_technologies_to_avoid_energy_crisis</ref>
Chu has called for gradually ramping up gasoline taxes over 15 years to coax consumers into buying more-efficient cars and living in neighborhoods closer to work. "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," he said before becoming Secretary of Energy. <ref>see [http://sec.online.wsj.com/article/SB122904040307499791.html ''WJS'' Dec. 12, 2008]</ref> Chu has been reluctant to embrace nuclear power, even though it emits no greenhouse gases, out of concerns with disposing its waste and the risk of nuclear proliferation.
Chu has called for gradually ramping up gasoline taxes over 15 years to coax consumers into buying more-efficient cars and living in neighborhoods closer to work. "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," he said before becoming Secretary of Energy. <ref>see [http://sec.online.wsj.com/article/SB122904040307499791.html ''WJS'' Dec. 12, 2008]</ref> Chu has been reluctant to embrace nuclear power, even though it emits no greenhouse gases, out of concerns with disposing its waste and the risk of nuclear proliferation. "The waste and proliferation issues [surrounding nuclear power] still haven’t been completely solved," he said. A major role of his Department of Energy is to oversee nuclear weapons and waste storage. The Obama campaign made clear that increased reliance on nuclear power will require finding a "safe" way to dispose of radioactive waste.
==Career==
==Career==
* "a price must be put on carbon "without loopholes"
* "a price must be put on carbon "without loopholes"
* "The Golden State could become a desert wasteland, with no more winter salad greens from its parched Central Valley or wines from its withered Napa-Sonoma vineyards, before this century ends unless America takes drastic steps to slow global warming"
* "The Golden State could become a desert wasteland, with no more winter salad greens from its parched Central Valley or wines from its withered Napa-Sonoma vineyards, before this century ends unless America takes drastic steps to slow global warming"
==Further reading==
* Zakaria, Fareed. "In the Great Ship Titanic: Nobel physicist Steven Chu is out to revitalize U.S. industry and save the world—if he can." [http://www.newsweek.com/id/193488 ''Newsweek'' Apr 20, 2009]
==References==
==References==