Washington (Platts)--13Jan2009

President-elect Barack Obama's choice for energy secretary, Steven Chu,
on Tuesday pledged to senators at his confirmation hearing that he will
improve management and jumpstart programs more quickly at the department.

"If the department is to meet the challenges ahead, it will have to run
more efficiently and effectively," Chu told the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee.

Among the priorities Chu outlined are a commitment to renewable energy,
such as wind and solar, more efficient cars and trucks, technologies that
capture and store carbon dioxide emissions, a system to trade carbon
emissions, advancing nuclear power and increased energy research and
development. He also said the administration would be dedicated to
"responsible" oil and gas development, as well as strengthening electricity
transmission, more efficient appliances and buildings.

"These elements of President-elect Barack Obama's plan will put us on a
course to a better energy and environmental future, create new jobs and
industries, restore US energy technology leadership, and help for the
foundation for future economic prosperity," Chu told the committee. "It will
be my primary goal as secretary to make the Department of Energy a leader in
these critical goals."

Chu is the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory outside San
Francisco, and a Nobel-prize winning physicist. While at Berkeley, Chu was a
powerful force in bringing a $500 million alternative-fuel research
center -- funded by BP -- to the lab.

Jeff Bingaman, the committee chairman and a New Mexico Democrat, said
that Chu had the "insight and vision" to form a 21st-century energy policy.
The ranking Republican on the committee, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, also praised
Chu. "The tasks that are before the Department of Energy are clearly not easy
tasks," Murkowski said, but added that Chu is uniquely poised to address them.

--Derek Sands, derek_sands@platts.com