Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz

Looking forward, President Obama’s choice for Secretary of Energy to replace Dr. Stephen Chu is Ernest Moniz, a physicist at MIT with a remarkable track record, concerning to some. He was an Under Secretary of Energy in the Clinton administration, and was more recently on President Obama’s Blue Ribbon Committee on America’s nuclear future. In the past he has called for a tripling of domestic nuclear capacity. He has deep oil and gas industry ties, and promotes increased natural gas use as the bridging fuel to a less carbon intensive future.

Scientific American reports that Moniz, like Chu, has argued for an “all of the above,” multi-pronged approach: Moniz is in favor of energy efficiency to reduce demand for power and accelerating the switch from coal to gas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He will encourage innovation to reduce the cost of low-carbon technologies such as renewables and nuclear power as well as accelerated deployment, and finding ways to make carbon capture and storage work, what he calls vital to growing the energy sector.