Steven Chu was introduced this week as the new Secretary of Energy, and web writers warmly received his appointment. Having a hard-core scientist (he a Nobel Prize winner and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab) that knows how to get to the root of the technical challenges bodes well for addressing climate change and energy security, according to Wired News.

The Environment News Service similarly reports that Chu's appointment indicates a new era of embracing science to solve our problems:

Chu is considered an outspoken advocate for scientific solutions to the twin problems of global warming and the need for carbon neutral renewable sources of energy. He has called these problems "the greatest challenge facing science."

Coal mines and their power-producing customers should be nervous about Chu's selection, according to Gas 2.0. It could be that federal dollars for developing "clean coal" technologies dry up under Chu.

However, those who do not consider nuclear energy as clean may at some point take issue with Chu. He clearly prefers nuclear power to coal, as outlined by the political blog Counterpunch.

The Rocky Mountain Institute's Chairman and Chief Scientist Amory Lovins wrote a list of action items for Chu:

* “Get the nuclear weapons and nuclear cleanup missions out of DOE into other civilian agencies, so we finally have an open, unclassified DOE focused exclusively on its civilian energy mission.”
* “Separate Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: they must be closely coordinated but merit separate Assistant Secretaries and budgets.”
* “Combine the divisions that promote fission and fusion. They won't be getting much money anyway if we choose the best buys first and focus on technologies headed for deployment in competitive markets.”
* “Remember that DOE has two statutory duties: technology research (nearly all its activities) and public-policy development (mostly neglected)”
* “Public policy should emphasize barrier-busting -- turning into a business opportunity, or otherwise correcting, each of the 60-80 well-known market failures to buying energy efficiency (and distributed and renewable supplies). Otherwise little will happen even if we get energy prices right.”
* “Name and shame energy subsidies. Desubsidizing the whole energy sector, so we pay for our energy at the meter or pump, not through our taxes, would be immensely helpful to our prosperity, security, and environment.”
* “As the core principles of energy policy, seek to allow and require all ways to save or produce energy to compete fairly, at honest prices, regardless of which kind they are, what technology they use, how big they are, where they are, or who owns them. Who wouldn't be in favor of that?”
* “Be bold. This is our last and best chance to get energy right. We know how; we just need to go do it.”

With all of the talk of energy efficiency, the Department of Energy itself needs to look at the efficiency of its research operation. The DOE has brilliant minds at work on projects such as developing cost-effective cellulosic ethanol, but the projects are scattered across the DOE's many national research labs, including Los Alamos, Sandia, PNNL, Oak Ridge, NREL, and the EERE.

Chu and new energy czarina Carol Browner could accelerate the commercialization of clean energy technologies by organizing all of this research data into a publicly accessible wiki. Entrepreneurs could learn what projects are already underway so that they aren't duplicating work, and researchers could learn more quickly form each other if the information were organized and searchable. This would also enable the DOE to better use taxpayer by eliminating redundant research between the many labs.

Update: According to Reuters, BP America Chairman and President Robert Malone is also happy with Chu's selection as energy secretary.

"I thought it was an interesting pick and a good pick," Malone told reporters at a BP press briefing. "He's signaling the importance of science to what we do and I view that as a positive."