Energy Secretary-designate Steven Chu is sworn in on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, prior to testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on his nomination. Chu vows to push nuclear power

Steven Chu said on Tuesday that he would push as the new energy secretary to help the nuclear energy and clean coal industries jump-start their contributions to battle the nation’s energy crisis.

The Nobel Prize-winning physicist told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during his confirmation hearing that he’d help streamline nuclear loan guarantees that would help the industry construct several new plants to produce low-emission energy and would push the Energy Department to examine options for recycling nuclear waste.


“I’m supportive of the fact that the nuclear industry should have to be part of energy mix in this century,” Chu said. “And recycling [nuclear waste] in the long term can be part of the solution.”

If confirmed by the Senate, the 60-year-old director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory would face the daunting task of moving the country forward on renewable energy, tackling global warming and overseeing the nation’s nuclear arsenal, senators cautioned.

Chu also solidified his position on clean coal after Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) urged him to clear up controversial comments he made earlier in his career, calling coal “my worst nightmare.”

“If the world continues to use coal the way it has been – I mean China, India, Russia – then it is a pretty bad dream,” Chu said, noting that he’d urge the Energy Department to develop clean coal solutions that could be shared with the international community.

Still, he expressed concern about how quickly carbon capture technology and other options might be available.

“We will work very hard to bring up technologies as quickly as possible,” he said, “But I do think the best thing we can do is work on energy efficiency…that remains lowest-hanging fruit at this time.”

Chu’s previous comments on clean coal contrasted with the President-Elect Barack Obama’s platform. During the campaign, he had said he would push for the construction of five full-scale clean coal plants.

Obama, however, has maintained a somewhat skeptical approach to nuclear energy, noting that consideration of all possibilities is important, but he has not laid out specific plans.

The committee’s ranking Republican, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, pushed Chu on whether he would support a renewed moratorium on offshore drilling. And he suggested he knew of no plans for reinstating the moratorium.

Both Murkowski and the committee’s chairman, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said both said they expected the Senate would confirm Chu next week, putting the California in charge of a department with a nearly $25 billion budget.

This article tagged under: 2010

Politics