Secretary of Energy Choices

Well, I've recently been looking at the details of Barrack Obama's new presidency, and of course one of the first thing I looked at was who he chose for Secretary of Energy, which is a very important position, in my opinion, especially with all this new impetus to "go green." Now, looking at who Obama has chosen for this position, as opposed to the men who held it for the last eight years, gives a pretty good example of the differences between two presidents. But first, some background.

In case you're wondering, the position of Secretary of Energy is a Cabinet position that was originally developed in 1977 to focus on energy production and regulation, but during the 1980s shifted to development of technology for better, more efficient energy sources as well as education regarding energy, and later the department's efforts were more often devoted to nuclear waste disposal and maintenance of environmental quality. Today it seems to be focused on regulating (or not regulating during the Bush years) the energy sector.

When George W. Bush came into power in 2000, he filled most of his cabinet with people who were left over from his father's presidency, or held party favor, and with this position things worked much the same. He chose a man name Spencer Abraham, who was long active in the Republican party (he was Michagan state chairman from 1983 to 1990), and a republican senator from 1994 until 2000, when he lost his seat to a Democrat. Luckily for him, George W. Bush was coming into office, and was willing to appoint any loyal party member to those empty cabinet seats, and so gave it to Abraham. Now you might ask, what qualifications, besides his party connections, did this man have, to be the United States Secretary of Energy? Why, a degree in law from Harvard, or course!

Now, just in case you wonder where his loyalties might have lay, since leaving office in 2005, he founded "The Abraham Group," which is pretty much a lobbying group and adviser to oil and pipeline companies. Also, he has been named Chairman of the Board of Areva Inc., the US subsidiary of a French nuclear energy company.

We all know how much Bush learned after those first four years, though, and so for his second term he appointed a new Energy Secretary, and this one had a science degree! From M.I.T.! Okay, so Samuel Bodman had worked for over twenty years in the financial sector, but still, somewhere back there he had a degree in chemical engineering, and so was a better choice than before.

Of course, he had also served as CEO of a Fortune 300 chemical company, before being Deputy Secretary of Treasury in Bush's first term, and then as Deputy Secretary of Commerce after that, but he did go to M.I.T., and Bush was noted for appointing people with little or no qualifications, so at least there's that.

Obama, on the other hand, has chosen for this position Steven Chu, the winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics. A Nobel laureate! Talk about qualified! He has been a professor of physics since 1976, both at Stanford, where he was also chair of his department, and the University of California, Berkeley. He is also of the opinion that technology must move away from fossil fuels, and is a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a force for momentum at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Also, he was an early member of Project Steve, an educational campaign for the teaching of evolution.

Now, who would you trust more, the man who chose a party favored lawyer, and a chemical company CEO, or a Nobel Prize winning physicist? I know who I'd choose.