Who Will Be the Next Energy Czar?

Let us hope that Obama elicits a private “yes” from a candidate before allowing a name to be publically leaked. Rahm Emanuel was placed in an untenable situation by the leaking of his name before he decided to take the Chief of Staff position. If he had turned down the job, it would have been perceived as a loss of face for Obama. Emanuel was really boxed in a corner. His hesitation, however, points out his ambivalence about the COS position, and his reluctance to leave his House of Rep. position, where he was carving out a power base of his own.

ED RENDELL, JEFFREY SACHS, AL GORE, LESTER BROWN, JAY INSLEE.

What about New Mexico guv, presidential candidate and Obama endorser, Bill Richardson. 

I also love Bill Richardson.  He’s has that ability to be really tough and really cool at the same time.  I wonder if he’d want it—he’s make a great Sec. of State (The #3 Job), and probably better than John Kerry (although Kerry is more knowledgeable on foreign affairs).  Yes, fine.  You convinced me jaif31, Richardson for Energy Czar! 

James Woolsey.  He is really into plug-in hybrids, and he would have the credentials to present large increases in fuel economy as a national security issue.  He has stated publically many times that he would like to do to oil what was done to salt: destroy it as a strategic commodity.  He would be good at presenting a price floor on oil to the public, and defending it.  He would also intelligently deal with nuclear power, by requiring all necessary safety measures.

I thought about adding Richardson. He had the energy czar job back in the Clinton administration though. Some people at the DOE labs don’t like him much, which may or may not be a bad thing.

Let?s hope Obama gets better advise on this selection than shown in this article.  The Energy Czar first of all needs to really understand energy and climate science, engineering, and technology.  Too much disinformation has been promulgated over the past five years by thousands of green advocates to trust this job to someone who hasn?t shown he or she is absolutely solid when it comes to the science.  The following all have PhDs from distinguished institutions in physics, energy, chemistry, or similar and have distinguished records in energy and climate science as well as public policy:

Joe Romm http://climateprogress.org/about , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Romm . 

Daniel Kammen http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~kammen/ .

James Hansen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hansen .

David Keith http://www.ucalgary.ca/~keith/ (currently chair of Canada Research Chair in Energy, but would probably come back to the U.S. if offered the position).

Michael Mann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Mann_(scientist) .

Calvin Bartholomew http://www2.et.byu.edu/~bartc/

Possibly someone as young as Joseph DeCarolis http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jfdecaro/ .

(Pardon me for the poor formating in my previous post. Let me try again.)

Let us hope Obama gets better advise on this selection than shown in this article.  The Energy Czar first of all needs to really understand energy and climate science, engineering, and technology.  Too much disinformation has been promulgated over the past five years by thousands of green advocates to trust this job to someone who hasn’t shown he or she is absolutely solid when it comes to the science.  The following all have PhDs from distinguished institutions in physics, energy, chemistry, or similar and have distinguished records in energy and climate science as well as public policy:

Joe Romm http://climateprogress.org/about , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Romm . 

Daniel Kammen http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~kammen/ .

James Hansen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hansen .

David Keith http://www.ucalgary.ca/~keith/ (currently chair of Canada Research Chair in Energy, but would probably come back to the U.S. if offered the position).

Michael Mann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Mann_(scientist) .

Calvin Bartholomew http://www2.et.byu.edu/~bartc/ .

Possibly someone as young as Joseph DeCarolis http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jfdecaro/ .

I hate to be the one always saying the obvious, but the best thing Obama could do to promote greentech/reduce climate change is to make Al Gore the next Secretary of State.  C’mon people… do you really think Gore would want to work at DOE?  Have you ever been inside that building?  Gore’s ego is massive to begin with, he’s now a very wealthy man, why would he bother?  The only job that he would take—and this would actually be good for Obama because he wouldn’t have to deal with Gore very much—is the # 3 job. 

I stongly disagree with the Woolsey pick.  Woolsey is a neocon that voted for McCain.  Yes he drives a prius, but so what?  And Richardson?  c’mon?!  Bill already had a stab at the post—can anyone out there name me one thing that he did ?  (Make Richardson embassador the UN ). 

http://current.com/topics/77022282/digg/new/0.htm 

Gore is signaling pretty strong that he doesn’t have an interest in being in the Cabinet again.