Get Energy Smart! NOW!

On a day where President Obama focused again on energy issues and gave a powerful speech, news is out of three great new additions for the Department of Energy:

• David Sandalow: Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs
• Dan Kammen: Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (or, sign, maybe not … [UPDATE: Cathy Zoi appointed. A Mea Culpa and congrats.
• Steven Koonin: Undersecretary for Science

Holdren … Chu … Lubchenco … Sandalow … Kammen (? … hopefully …) … Koonin … We’re talking a truly world-class team, which is not just a stark contrast to the previous eight years, but a team that might just be up to the challenges before us.

Thinking about the people moving into slots within the Administration for dealing with energy and climate issues is something to boost the optimist side of my optimistic-pessimist nature.

Let’s be clear, all three of these people are worth listening to and learning from. Let’s provide some quick background.

David Sandalow

Currently a fellow at the Brookings Institution, David served in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Environment, and Science, U.S. State Department; Senior Director for Environmental Affairs, National Security Council; and the Associate Director for the Global Environment, White House Council on Environmental Quality. He was Executive Vice President, World Wildlife Fund and runs part of the Clinton Climate Initiative. And, by the way, an incredibly decent guy …

His book, Freedom from Oil, is truly worth reading … for multiple reasons. From my review

Now, before moving toward substance, a perspective on how I valued this book. Literally, unnumbered are the books that I’m reading at any one time, sneaking in a page here and there, moving from book to book. Other that Harry Potter or other escapes to better (or worse) realities, I very rarely read a book, cover-to-cover, without dallying to the pages of others of the 200+ open books. Well, Freedom from Oil is an exception to this pattern, read cover-to-cover without temptation to pursue a dalliance with another author. Both in structure and substance, Sandalow had my attention.

More importantly, in substance, this is a template on how to move within the bureaucratic structure of US government toward policy decisions on the critical issue of oil independence. This suggests that Secretary Chu will have an excellent advisor on achieving inter-agency progress and that the DOE.

And, consider his title … interesting that David is co-author to the January 2009 Overcoming Obstacles to U.S.-China Cooperation on Climate Change which is roadmap on how to make, mutually, progress on reducing emissions amid the world’s two largest polluters (responsible, between us, for nearly half the world’s GHG emissions). Time to revisit this paper.

Dan Kammen

UPDATE: Okay, perhaps out of the gate too quickly. Some reporting that Kammen is stating, directly, that he is not the appointee …

Dan Kammen is director of Berkeley’s Renewable Energy and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, a member of the International Panel on Climate Change, was a surrogate for Barack Obama on energy issues in the primary and general election, and … Well, it doesn’t make sense to put out resume material.

Dan is, to keep with superlatives, truly top-notch, running one of the best programs in the nation. He is very clearly in the ‘no silver bullet’ camp and sees the multifacted benefits of (and necessities to) change the nation’s energy path.

While he has well over 100 articles (no, I haven’t read them all …), this 2008 OPED highlights that we should look toward soemthing better and ends:

The time is right to focus on the energy system we want, not on the one we had, and sadly, still have.

“Focus on the energy system we want …”

Kammen brings substantive knowledge about the challenges of getting both energy efficiency and renewable energy into play. And, a real vision for the potential of renewable energy

Steven Koonin

Steven Koonin is BP’s chief scientist, focusing on the “beyond petroleum” (in quotes for a reason) elements, and that will be the bio item highlighted in almost news stories. Koonin’s been with BP since 2004 … after 30 years at Caltech, including a decade as Provost.

In a 2006 interview with Koonin and Chu, the last question relates directly to the new post:

Q: Does the US R&D enterprise need to be refocused in some way in order to transition to a carbon-reduced economy?

CHU: Yes. The good news is that a lot of scientists who were focused on very basic research are now waking up and saying, “Maybe I should start thinking about this problem.” Solving the energy problem is of such importance that it needs our best and brightest.

KOONIN: I think we are beginning to engage the world’s best scientific talent in these problems. But it also requires a research program that is rationally based, that certainly has a blue-sky component but also focuses on those technologies that look most promising. The program management needs to be much more technically informed. It needs to be sustained. And it needs to be able to fail.

CHU: …and we need to fail quickly. That’s the key to success. After some initial research tells you that a potential solution won’t scale properly, it is important to move on as quickly as possible to other opportunities.

Here is a Koonin presentation. Only 90 some minutes. Worth it if you’re willing to give it the time. The briefing slides are a resource that I have returned to multiple times.

Now, by the way, being impressed by and heartened that they are going into the Administration doesn’t mean total agreement. For example, on a non-minor example, Koomin speaks strongly of the necessity of carbon capture and sequestration without getting forthrightly, imo, into the question as to whether “Clean Coal” is about as realistic as dry water. He has also been, reportedly, core to Shell’s pursuit of biofuels.

NOTE: Reading through, this provided ‘certainty’ to the announcements that isn’t there yet — these are reported/rumored/discussed, not yet announced out of the White House. We can hope that the ‘rumors’ are spot on. By the way, another good announcement:
Jonathan Pershing as Deputy Special Envoy on Climate in the Department of State.