Secretary Chu’s Bumpy Ride From Laboratory to Washington - NYTimes.com

Dr. Chu is struggling to get his arms around one of the most perplexing and intractable bureaucracies in Washington and to efficiently — and carefully — disperse $39 billion in funding from the stimulus package. Most of the department’s top appointed positions, including deputy secretary, remain unfilled, leaving him largely reliant on career staff members to manage 114,000 employees and contractors and a budget that has more than doubled this year. The task at times appears overwhelming, and some in Washington quietly wonder if Dr. Chu is in over his head.

Karen Harbert, president of the Institute for 21st Century Energy at the United States Chamber of Commerce, praised Dr. Chu’s academic credentials, calling him Mr. Science. But she suggested that the main decisions on energy and climate change policy were being made at the White House by a small team led by Carol Browner, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

You don't say?!

They found that a warming climate may benefit some cold-blooded species, especially reptiles and insects living in northern and temperate climates where the main concern is finding enough sun to stay warm.

Mayor Ostenburg Reports from NLC Conference in Washington, D.C.: Why isn't "The Greatest Problem Ever" listed #1?

Remarks in the afternoon by Energy Secretary Steven Chu were absolutely outstanding. How wonderful it is to have an administration with a cabinet member who is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. He said the goal of the Obama administration as regards energy is to (1) create more jobs to lift the economy, (2) mitigate against dangerous climate change, and (3) free the U.S. of its dependence on foreign oil. He pointed out that "green" jobs cannot be outsourced. Grants are available to help citizens weatherize their homes in order to save on energy costs. He described a program in Berkeley where the city advances money to citizens to weatherize their homes and then adds the cost of that loan to the property tax bill, along with 6% interest. With the energy savings that the citizen realizes, he/she pays the loan and the interest and yet ends up ahead.