Tag: department of energy

Steven Chu to leave Department of Energy?

Interesting.

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu may be leaving the post during the next term of the Obama administration. Among those on the list to replace Chu are Ritter; Tom Steyer, a Democrat from California; former North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan; Susan Tierney, a former assistant energy secretary; and Steve Westley, a California businessman, according to The Washington Post.

More at Hot Air, which notes that Dr. Chu has been distinctly subpar as Secretary of Energy ( the man doesn’t understand either politics or finance, which is not unexpected, but also why we don’t normally pick scientists for these positions).  As for a replacement, the answer is obvious: Senator-elect Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. While a Democrat, she’s a strong supporter of both the Keystone pipeline and hydraulic fracking, and frankly what we need now is a Secretary of Energy with some sort of practical background in energy production.  At the very least, we need one who might, perhaps, have a better chance to not actually waste the $30B annual budget that we give Energy every  year.  I think that we’re quite done with having all of these Solyndra-level debacles all of the time, correct? Continue reading Steven Chu to leave Department of Energy?

Department of Energy Inefficiency*.

(Via Deceiver) Those wacky Inspector Generals. Always noting inconvenient truths:

Boy, the Energy Department is really having trouble practicing the energy efficiency it keeps preaching: The latest inspector general’s report found that the DOE often neglects to turn down the thermostat, wasting millions of dollars in energy every year.

The latest report found that “the Energy Department failed in many cases to use controls on heating, ventilation and air conditioning that are a primary means of conserving energy during non-working hours,” as Dow Jones Newswires put it. That could have cost the DOE more than $11 million.

Small potatoes, considering that we’re facing the wasting of trillions of dollars every year, for the forseeable future?  Sure.  Could the Department of Energy been even worse?  Undoubtedly.  Is it still obnoxious that, yet again, a government agency isn’t doing itself what it’s delighting in telling us to do?  Ya, you betcha.

Moe Lane

*I swear that this popped into my head before I saw the WSJ title.

Crossposted to RedState.