The Michigan Messenger

Republican Congressman Vern Ehlers of Grand Rapids is among the many supporters of President-elect Obama’s pick of Nobel prize-winning physicist and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory administrator, Steven Chu, to head the Dept. of Energy.

Ehlers, who is the first physicist elected to Congress and who holds a doctoral degree in nuclear physics from University of California Berkeley, told Michigan Messenger last month that having Chu lead the Dept. of Energy, “will certainly be good for science on the whole.”
 
Chu will advance efforts on energy issues across the board, Ehlers said, “From physics research to the mundane issue of how we will fuel our cars, these decisions will be oriented around science rather than politics.”

Ehlers gave the example of federal support for ethanol as an example of a politically motivated energy policy focused on benefiting farmers.

At a friendly Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on his nomination this week Chu focused on the need to address climate change and increase efficiency while distancing himself from previous comments about increasing taxes on gasoline and banning coal. Chu said new nuclear development need not wait until a long-term solution is found for spent nuclear fuel and he told the committee that he supports revitalizing the nation’s energy grid to handle more alternative energy.

The full Senate is expected to approve Chu as energy secretary as soon as next week.

Here’s more on Chu’s Senate hearing from the Washington Post.

[Ed. note: You can catch Steve Chu’s first national address via our sister site, The New Mexico Independent.]