Steven Chu

Based on a Defense Department program which helped commercialize products like microchips, Arpa-e was created under President George W. Bush in 2007, but never funded until it received $400 million in the 2009 stimulus package.

In October 2009 Chu offered more than a third of that money to 37 different projects. Though most of the projects were expected to fail, Chu said some could have "a transformative impact," the New York Times reported.

In a press release, Chu called the program, "a crucial part of the new effort by the U.S. to spur the next Industrial Revolution in clean energy technologies, creating thousands of new jobs and helping cut carbon pollution."

Chu chose Arun Majumdar, a former colleague at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to head the new agency.

Climate change

Chu has emerged as a voice for urgent action on climate change, and for putting a price on carbon to send a signal to the markets. "In the last five or six years I was following this as an interested citizen," he said in an interview with NPR. "And it became more and more apparent to me that the dangers, the potential risks of climate change were looking like they were more and more likely, and that ... as a scientist, a responsible scientist, you really have to think of what you can do to help with this problem."

He is a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council, an international effort to "create global awareness of the importance of the U.N. Climate Summit, in Copenhagen, in December 2009, and to ensure support and assistance to global decision makers when agreeing on a new climate treaty."

"These are serious predictions," he said in an interview, discussing the latest climate science "It's prudent risk management. It's like saying, 'Your house will burn down in the next 10 years -- 50 percent probability. By the way, do you want fire insurance?'"

The House did pass a June 2009 cap-and-trade bill spearheaded by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), but it was stalled in the Senate and is unlikely to be move in the 112th Congress because of GOP gains in the 2010 elections.

Renewable Energy

Chu has in recent years become an outspoken advocate for the need to move toward carbon-neutral energy sources, and the need for the technologies that can allow that. "I think political will is absolutely necessary," he said in a speech at the National Clean Energy Summit in August 2008. "But we need new technologies."

His work at Lawrence Berkeley Lab has focused on creating advanced biofuels, artificial photosynthesis and solar technologies. Under his guidance, the lab has in recent years worked on creating photovoltaic cells that can be painted on -- called "solar paint" -- and on technology that can convert solar energy to liquid fuel by mimicking plant photosynthesis. The lab has also worked on improving energy efficiency. Their Helios Project has focused on developing methods to "store" solar energy in the form of renewable transportation fuels like algae and other biomass.

In 2007, he forged a research pact between Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley lab, and energy giant BP, persuading BP to fund a $500 million biofuels institute at the school. The partnership sparked controversy both within the scientific community, with one student group staging a mock graduation ceremony with oil-stained diplomas. The lab also secured a $125 million grant from the Department of Energy to found the Joint BioEnergy Institute.

Chu has also lobbied for the creation of an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy at the Energy Department to fund innovative, high-tech technologies to address the energy crisis.

He also co-chaired a report for the United Nations' InterAcademy Council that concludes that it is in "the best economic and societal interest of developing nations to 'leapfrog' past the wasteful energy trajectory followed by today's industrialized nations" by focusing on renewables, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.

He's also advocated for an interstate electricity-transmission system, paid for by ratepayers, that would address the access problems with many renewable energy sources.

Coal

Chu will likely need to address the issue of government funding for coal research because the DOE has been a major funder of projects to turn coal into liquid fuel as well as the controversial FutureGen plant, which was the pilot program in Illinois that was supposed to yield the nation's first zero-emissions, "clean coal" power plant. The Bush administration abandoned the project after the price tag ballooned to $1.8 billion, moving the money to other projects aimed to get carbon capture-and-sequestration technologies in place at other power plants. But supporters, including then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) sought to keep it alive.

Chu has not voiced a lot of support for coal, and according to reports, noted in a speech earlier this year that "coal is my worst nightmare." He has said that "clean coal" technologies would need to be developed to keep it in the energy portfolio, but emphasized, "It's not guaranteed we have a solution for coal."

Nuclear Power

Chu's comments on nuclear power have drawn some attention, as he noted in a 2005 interview that he "absolutely" thinks the role of nuclear in the country's energy portfolio should be increased. But he's also cautious about expanding nuclear power without better disposal methods. "The waste and proliferation issues still haven't been completely solved," he has said.

In the early wake of the March 2011 Japanse earthquake and tsunami that caused radiation leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Chu testified before Congress that the Obama administration would stick to its plan to keep nuclear power in the mix of U.S. energy strategy.

"The administration believes we must rely on a diverse set of energy sources, including renewables like wind and solar, natural gas, clean coal and nuclear power," Chu said in March 2011. "The administration is committed to learning from Japan's experience as we work to continue to strengthen America's nuclear industry."

In order to make nuclear power a viable option, Chu has said, "We've got to recycle the waste." He has warned there isn't enough capacity at Yucca Mountain, the site on federal land in Nevada currently under consideration as a long-term storage facility. "[I]f you take all the waste we have now from our civilian and military nuclear operations, we'd fill up Yucca Mountain. So we need three or four Yucca Mountains. Well, we don't have three or four Yucca Mountains." He's also expressed concerns about the long-term safety of storing the waste.

Nuclear Weapons

Some have expressed concern that Chu has very little experience in dealing with the manufacture and maintenance of nuclear weapons. The largest portion of the DOE budget is set aside for maintaining the country's nuclear stocks.

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