Obama to Announce Energy Posts on Monday
EmailFrom Sunlen Miller
President-elect Obama will hold his 9th press conference tomorrow in Chicago to formally announce his Energy team.
As reported last week Obama will announce Nobel Laureate Steven Chu for his nominee for Secretary of the Department of Energy.
In addition, Obama is likely to announce Carol Browner to serve as the White House energy "czar" and Lisa Jackson will likely serve as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
At Obama’s last press conference on Thursday 3 out of the 4 questions asked of Mr. Obama were about Blagojevich – not their intended message of the day, healthcare.
The Obama Transition Team wants to talk energy this time but will this be another press avail that will get buried under all things-Blagojevich?
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So is this going to consist of handmade paper windmills and heating up cups on water on the porch or what?
We can’t make 1/10th of the energy we’re accustomed to by these green methods, I hate to tell you. It’s a fantasy, Al Gore style. (You remember him, the inventor of the internet.)
But hey, people who don’t do science have got to learn the hard way, I guess.
Posted by: midwestlady | December 14, 2008, 3:45 pm 3:45 pm
The only way to conserve energy is not to use as much of it. Sort of self-explanatory, eh?
But no one wants to be told it’s just as simple as shutting off the bathroom light when you leave the room, turning the house thermostat down a notch, refusing to drive the kid across town to that thing they don’t need to go to anyway, etc etc
Besides, not spending on fuel is a problem for the recession right now, isn’t it? GNP and all that.
Posted by: midwestlady | December 14, 2008, 3:49 pm 3:49 pm
Hmmm, I don’t know. I guess that’s up to our esteemed journalists, isn’t it? Do they want to make fools of themselves chasing minutia some more or deal with the issues important to the country? We shall see. And the American public will judge them by it.
Posted by: Lisa | December 14, 2008, 3:52 pm 3:52 pm
Wow that’s ironic midwestlady. You’re attacking Obama for not using “science” in thinking of alternative energy. Perhaps, you don’t see that one of the names listed above is a Dr. Steven Chu. A nobel prize winning physicist. I’m sorry, if he’s not practicing science, then the term has lost it’s word.
Posted by: Chris | December 14, 2008, 4:08 pm 4:08 pm
Wait a minute, conserving energy by normal and reasonable means is “chasing minutae” now?
Caring about energy spending’s effect on the economy is “minutae?”
Come down off cloud nine. The election’s over. Time to follow through now and stop yapping.
Posted by: midwestlady | December 14, 2008, 4:09 pm 4:09 pm
It all remains to be seen, Chris. I’m one of those dreaded Independents. I don’t believe it til I see it and I haven’t seen anything yet. It’s all hot air.
Posted by: midwestlady | December 14, 2008, 4:11 pm 4:11 pm
And when They want to start building more “wind farms”? It’ll be a NIMBY-fest. Choose your spot: prime residential real estate, agricultural fields, or cleared woodlands.
And midwestlady, I agree. Unfortunately, fantasy is still selling very well.
Posted by: Laughing Cynic | December 14, 2008, 4:22 pm 4:22 pm
What’s the over-under on how many questions are actually asked about energy policy or Obama’s energy team, in comparison to Blago Q’s? 2?
Posted by: matt | December 14, 2008, 4:32 pm 4:32 pm
I know. It’s like all the stores selling those little green eco bags to put your groceries in. I haven’t seen a single person use them. Apparently people buy them as little “i’m green” trophies or something and file them away….. It’s funny.
Meanwhile, they’re all buying tons of the plasticized paper that wraps all their chicken nuggets and diet food. HEh.
Posted by: midwestlady | December 14, 2008, 4:41 pm 4:41 pm
We already have an energy source that is both cheap and clean AND proven. Many countries have actually been using it for decades.
It’s called nuclear power (and all that crap about what to do with the waste is a red herring. France seems to have solved THAT issue. We could do the same if Congress would allow it).
Solar looks great in theory but is still very inefficient. Wind may be efficient but oh no, we can’t have that wind farm THERE because it ruins the view, kills birds, etc (not to mention the issue of breakage with wind fan blades from a certain company). And of course both are intermittent sources of power.
But of course if the government throws enough money at solar, wind, hydro, etc. then, and only then can we have success, right?
But don’t let reality get in the way of those fairy tales.
Posted by: Reality IS | December 14, 2008, 4:56 pm 4:56 pm
Americans and their idealism. Funny as h3ll.
I love the fact that city-dwellers around here build neighborhoods in the country, set up their dumpsters and basketball courts and proceed to make a ton of noise and stink. And THEN have the audacity to sue the farmers because the cows fart. I kid you not. Apparently cows are fine as long as they don’t have back ends which are annoying to the ex-city-dwelling elite. From the front cows apparently look to them like picture postcards. From the back, well, when you get a front you get a back. What can I say?????
All the time, of course, these same people are munching double cheese-burgers and guzzling milk. Go figure.
SOOO, how long do we give wind farms???? Til someone gets drunk and gets hurt staggering across the field and the insurance puts them out of business? Til someone has their precious pastoral view occluded? 15 mins tops.
Posted by: midwestlady | December 14, 2008, 5:07 pm 5:07 pm
Why is there no article here about the Iraqi reporter that threw his shoes at Bush today? It was captured on video.
Posted by: Bloggy | December 14, 2008, 5:47 pm 5:47 pm
I’ll take the word of T. Boone Picken, who has already invested millions in wind farms and plans to invest a lot more, that wind is a practical and efficient way to produce energy. He sure knows more than the self-created “experts” posting here tonight.
Posted by: Herb Gray | December 14, 2008, 5:51 pm 5:51 pm
All Obama has to do is to say that he will not answer any Blago questions during this news conference. He should just say that he believes in transparency and that as soon as they gather all the information they will let the press know the details but until then he won’t answer any questions.
If the press asks him a question about it he can just say next question.
Posted by: Cameron | December 14, 2008, 5:52 pm 5:52 pm
midwestlady – Gore never said he invented the internet. He did however, take the initiative to make the Pentagon-only technology available to the public so that people like you could bash him on blogs.
Posted by: Eric | December 14, 2008, 6:03 pm 6:03 pm
all concerned in ohio wants to know is
when raham will resign.
that is all?
what about when bush will be brought up for war crimes?
what about some justice for the four thousand killed?
you want to walk over the big pile of muck of george bushes making,
and find a pebble and then you want answers.
such hypos.
we should all be calling for bush to be brought up on war crimes.
bill clinton lied about having sex and was impeached,
bush lied and caused lives to be lost and you say nothing,
and now you jump to talking about obama and such.
things will probally never be right in this country again until bush is brought up for war crimes.
Posted by: bush the USA | December 14, 2008, 6:03 pm 6:03 pm
midwestlady – Gore never said he invented the internet. He did however, take the initiative to make the Pentagon-only technology available to the public so that people like you could bash him on blogs.
Posted by: Eric | December 14, 2008, 6:04 pm 6:04 pm
justice for the four thousand plus who have died in this lie of a war of george bush.
bush for war crimes,
and you people are wrong for not calling for it.
if you are not calling for bush to be brought up on war crimes
everything else you want justice for is bs.
so concerned in ohio, who wants rham out
what about bush for war crimes first.
and belle starr and midwestlady.
who want obama and michelle out.
bush for war crimes.
if you are not calling for bush for war crimes. you are unpatriotic.
and everything else you want to see made right, is nothing.
we will maybe see justice again,
when bush is up for war crimes.
and all of you know it.
you should stop with your bs about obama stepping up, and ante up, and michelle and all of that other stuff.
bush for war crimes.
and you all know it.
Posted by: bush the USA | December 14, 2008, 6:08 pm 6:08 pm
Nuclear (expand existing plant capacity) – power line and water cooling infrastructure in place, permits already pulled, location decided on – relatively cheap to build a few more reactors.
Wind – requires a big investment of power line infrastructure to tap the wind corridor in the Midwest and the Rockies.
Solar – makes sense in places like CA (where prices are high), AZ (where sun is plenty), …
Geothermal – (e.g. Engineered Geothermal Systems – ). This technology broadens the geography for geo-thermal and can be used locally with little infrastructure.
Those are all no-brainer, low-hanging fruit solutions. Combine clean electricity production with cheap hybrids and the solution becomes obvious.
Posted by: Lou | December 14, 2008, 6:12 pm 6:12 pm
Why don’t we talk more about conservation? Why don’t we talk more about asset utilization and work toward maximizing the assets we have now.
Posted by: barry | December 14, 2008, 6:20 pm 6:20 pm
barry i agree,
we can talk about all of that
right after we bring bush up for war crimes.
Posted by: bush the USA | December 14, 2008, 6:26 pm 6:26 pm
What’s up the this new term “Czar?” We’ve got an energy czar and a car czar. Serously, this is becoming the USSA under the Obama administration. Not to mention the whole Global Warming issue is a bunch of crap.
Posted by: simka | December 14, 2008, 6:57 pm 6:57 pm
Going clean, electric, let the middle east along with bin laden come to kneel down and beg for buying oil. The U.S. is going to be true winner.
Posted by: 상율 한 | December 14, 2008, 7:02 pm 7:02 pm
“Czar” is an old term. It’s been around for ages. It certainly wasn’t invented by Obama’s people.
Posted by: Lou | December 14, 2008, 7:05 pm 7:05 pm
Yeah, “midwestlady,” we really believe that your opinions carry more weight than those of someone like Steven Chu or Al Gore or the thousands of research scientists and technologists that have weighed in on these issues.
Dream on.
Posted by: C.P. | December 14, 2008, 7:12 pm 7:12 pm
On World News, 14 Dec 08, your announcer commented that wildfires, storms and droughts were more frequent now because of global warming. What happened to fact checking? I was told the big networks did it routinely.
The fact is that there is less of all three types of natural disasters in the last 50 years than in the previous 50 years. This is easily checked online from US government sources as shown in the book by Prof. Patrick J. Michaels: “Meltdown”, 2004, in Chapter 6.
On top of this, we are in the ninth year of global cooling. Every year since 1998 has been cooler. Early snows in the USA, Australia’s winter, Argentina’s winter and elsewhere this winter and last are well-documented.
ABC’s devotion to climate junk science is appalling. See any competent review, even mine by Googling “Climate Change Reexamined”.
Posted by: Joel M. Kauffman | December 14, 2008, 7:18 pm 7:18 pm
What global warming? This is all a politcal move to control power. Vote no to any czar moves on climate, vote no Gore, and if need be, just ignore all politicans…..after all al gore produces more co2 than my whoe neighborhood, how much co2 will the inauguration produce. All politicians are jokers – just ignore them all and live free …..
Posted by: larryesperando | December 14, 2008, 7:24 pm 7:24 pm
Obama will need to pass legislation during his fast year so as the global cooling continues he can say that he solved the global warming problem….. what a joke…. I ignore them all and do as I please…
Posted by: larryesperando | December 14, 2008, 7:28 pm 7:28 pm
larry,
after eight years of bush, we can see why you feel all politician are
jokers.
Posted by: bush the usa | December 14, 2008, 7:44 pm 7:44 pm
Nuclear is unsafe because it is radioactive for thousands of years. We are still stumbling onto things built in the last 2000 years that people forgot was there. Imagine people 500 years from now stumbling onto an old reactor. Yeah we may not always keep good records.
Posted by: Beowolf747 | December 14, 2008, 7:52 pm 7:52 pm
Barack Hussein Obama needs to get a news set of workers…..lots of questions are coming up about a number of them.
The corrupt governor…..wonder who will come up next.
Posted by: Blondshag | December 14, 2008, 7:55 pm 7:55 pm
bush should be needing to get his legal team together.
bush for war crimes
Posted by: bush the usa | December 14, 2008, 8:47 pm 8:47 pm
When Obama has a press conference to
ANSWER the allegations concerning
BlagRezuel, maybe the press will stop
asking questions……ya think?
Posted by: CandyKane | December 14, 2008, 9:54 pm 9:54 pm
Obama can dig up scads of money from
his followers. Should be able to retire
the national debt in plenty of time
to begin raising funds to fund his
’12 campaign. He saved $20 mil stiffing
Hillary alone. This guy is Daddy Warbucks. You gotta admire a grifter
with moxie.
Posted by: CandyKane | December 14, 2008, 10:19 pm 10:19 pm
I agree we are not going to be able to replace oil with any one energy source. Nuclear has the most potential if built close to the energy needs. Every region has different needs and different solutions can be used.
Here it is in a nutshell. As of right this minute, we are still manufacturing cars that ONLY get 16 mpg city use that on top of that cost a small fortune. So at this moment we are not in the least taking this energy crisis seriously. We still care much more about the glitz that practical use.
I live in a well built, average home that currently is keeping me very warm against -35 degree weather today. I don’t give a darn about glitz, I care that I don’t freeze to death.
Posted by: Susan | December 15, 2008, 10:33 am 10:33 am