Obama's new Energy Secretary and EPA head

The US has been abuzz with talk of Obama's picks for his cabinet. One very exciting guy coming up for Secretary of Energy will be Steven Chu, a strong advocate for alternative and renewable energy. He also happens to be a Nobel Laureate for Physics from 1997 (cooling and trapping atoms with lasers). Currently this guy serves as director for the Lawerence Berkeley National Laboratory, pushing the governmental institution towards becoming a world leader in biofuels, artificial photosynthesis, and solar energy technologies, focusing on using carbon-neutral sources.

One particular quote stands out to me: "If I were emperor of the world, I would put the pedal to the floor on energy efficiency and conservation for the next decade," he told Reuters in a May 2007 interview. This really excites me because I think he will be able to push the US towards the forefront of the climate change issue. Personally, I'm also proud that a Chinese-American will be spearheading the effort. It may send a message to China, as well, to push them to change their policies towards reducing greenhouse emissions.

Further quotes from Steven Chu about climate change can be found here.

Another important cabinet pick will be Obama's choice for the administrator for the EPA. Lots of names have been thrown around, but it sounds like he's recently settled for Lisa P. Jackson. Her record as former head of the New Jersey EPA seems fairly green, although critics have argued that her record shows neglect of hazardous waste sites and weakening proposals to enact safer groundwater quality standards.

We'll have to see how these appointments turn out, but so far, I'm fairly excited to see the people that Obama has put his trust in. Let's hope that trust is well placed.

Comments

Focus on Algae - Part I: Bioremediation

After spending the last few blog posts on different aspects of dissimilatory bacteria , I want to switch the focus to a different class of organisms I have been interested in for a long time now. These are the algae. Algae comprise a large diversity of "sea weeds" and an even larger variety of single-celled organisms that mostly are capable of doing photosynthesis. They include the ordinary sea-weed, and make up a portion of the green slime found around the edges and the bottom of a pond. More exotic types of algae can live symbiotically - that is together with another organism in a mutually beneficial way. Lichens are an example of symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi. More information about the evolution and lineage of algae can be found in this wiki article . Image via Wikipedia Typically, these organisms are either not mentioned at all or only in conjunction with toxic algal blooms. But lately, algae, of course, have been in the news recently because of the p...

Journal Club:”An Engineered Microbial Platform for Direct Biofuel Production from Brown Macroalgae”

Cover of Science Issue 335. It has been a while since we have done a journal club , and so today I thought I would write about an article I recently read. Adam J. Wargacki, who works in Yasuo Yoshikuni's group, recently published the above titled paper. In light of problems associated with the use of fossil energy sources (cost, scarcity, environmental impact, and geopolitical considerations), the search for new energy sources is starting to become more important. The paper in discussion today proposes that a coupled system consisting of brown macroalgae and engineered bacteria could be used. Of course there are more traditional biofuel feedstock sources such as corn and sugarcane. There a couple of hurdles such as the debate about “food versus fuel” and technical hurdles such as the degradation of lignocellulosic matter that need to be solved. We have previously discussed how microalgaecould get around the difficulties of corn and sugarcane in the production of bioefu...

Permaculture: nature is still smarter than us

Permaculture In the year 2010, there are many aspects of humans' daily life that would lead us to believe that we have dominated nature. Unlike the thousands of other species that have gone extinct, we have settled and thrived in almost every environment and every continent on this planet, aside from Antarctica. We have eradicated diseases like smallbox and subdued other diseases which previously decimated our populations on a massive scale (see The Black Death in the 1300s and Columbus' “discovery of the Americas in 1492). We have created chemicals that allow us to blast weeds and insects into submission and thereby cultivate thousands of acres of the same species on farmland; an environment that would be impossible in nature. But nature is still smarter than us. A lot smarter. And we still have much to learn from its processes. Permaculture is the idea of mimicking the ways that ecosystems work in the context of essential human activities: house and settlement design, farming...

Bio-Based Ideas

Search This Blog