Energy Pick Softens StanceYet Still Signals Major Shifts on Policies

At his confirmation hearing, Steven Chu, President-elect Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Energy, backed away slightly from earlier statements in which he called for high gasoline taxes and said “coal is my worst nightmare.” Yet Chu, appearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, signaled a radical shift from the Bush era as he called for limited use of coal, eventual taxes on carbon, and a rapid shift to renewable energy. Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said higher gas taxes were “off the table” during the current economic crisis but stated that an eventual tax on carbon would encourage conservation and a move to alternative energy. He said the growing use of coal is “a pretty bad dream,” called for accelerated research into carbon capture and storage, and warned 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 backed limited use of nuclear power and limited offshore drilling as part of a comprehensive energy package.