WHO WILL BE THE NEXT SECRETARY OF ENERGY?

CQ Politics is an “inside politics” publication. It is a keen observer of Congress and the Washington bureaucracy. One of its writers took a look at the advisors to Senator McCain and Senator Obama to see how they might influence the next President and which might become the next Secretary of Energy.

Caveat: The CQ writer puts a lot emphasis on the Secretary's responsibility for handling nukes and nuclear energy. This has interesting implications: (1) Energy policy is first and foremost a national security issue; (2) Energy policy is formulated by someone whose responsiblities BEGINS with nukes; (3) At a Department run by someone with such credentials and responsibilites, why would New Energy be anything BUT an afterthought?

Answer: Because New Energy is the best solution to U.S. energy security challenges and to meeting the Secretary's REAL responsibilities to the American people.

Footnote: If energy is a national security issue, it makes perfect sense to support it with policy, incentives and subsidies. Ergo - New Energy should have the best policy, incentives and subsidies tax dollars can buy.

League of Conservation Voters assessment of McCain

League of Conservation Voters assessment of Obama

McCain energy policy statement

Obama energy policy statement

Samuel Bodman has been President Bush's Secretary of Energy. (click to enlarge)

The Cabinet: Energy Secretary
Coral Davenport, October 4, 2008 (CQ Politics)

WHO
The next Secretary of Energy

WHAT
The Secretary of Energy is intimately involved with the President in planning national energy policy. Who will he or she be?

click to enlarge

WHEN
Election day is November 4.

WHERE
The Secretary of Energy runs the Department of Energy and is a member of the President’s cabinet.

WHY
- McCain’s advisors:
(1) Heather A. Wilson (Congresswoman, New Mexico, since 1988)
Lost GOP primary bid for Senate, seen as a Republican political and intellectual force on energy issues. Represents Los Alamos National Laboratory and member of the Intelligence Committee, she could manage the nuclear weapons arsenal. She is an Air Force vet and former National Security Council staffer. Served on House Energy and Commerce Committee. A nuclear energy booster. Regards herself as an iconoclast who makes up her own mind.
(2 R. James Woolsey (Former Clinton CIA director)
McCain's chief energy adviser. Outspoken on U.S. fossil fuel dependence as a national security threat. A vet of testimony to Congress and major national panels. Vocal advocate of New Energy and PHEVs. Held presidential appointments from Carter, Reagan, Bush I and Clinton. Closely associated with neocons.
(3) Frederick W. Smith (FedEx Corp. founder/CEO)
National co-chair, McCain campaign committee. A wild-card pick for Energy b/c FedEx consumes ~ $3 billion/year in fuel. Advocate of energy conservation. Works with Environmental Defense to promote hybrid delivery trucks. FedEx has big solar installations. In Freedom from Oil: How the Next President Can End the United States' Oil Addiction by Obama energy adviser/ former assistant Secretary of State David B. Sandalow, Smith is called a "highly visible leader on the topic of oil dependence." Co-chair of the Energy Security Leadership Council, a subgroup of the nonpartisan Securing America's Future Energy.
- Obama’s advisors:
(1) Ernest J. Moniz (Physicist, MIT)
Professor, Clinton undersecretary of Energy and associate director for science/Office of Science and Technology Policy. A nuclear physicist, he led an Energy Department comprehensive review of the nuclear stockpile program and served as special negotiator on Russian nuclear weapons so knows DOE’s management of the nuclear arsenal. Was co-director of MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment, which focuses on the science of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy , so could run the expected Obama expansion of DOE to energy policy and climate change.
(2) Edward G. Rendell (Governor, Pennsylvania)
Governor since 2002, he could help Obama carry the state and win his choice of jobs, even though he was a Clinton supporter. Has promoted New Energy, pushed through an 18% RES in PA, urged big funding for New Energy infrastructure and green jobs, Obama’s policies for the country.
(3) Philip R. Sharp (President, Resources for the Future)
Prominent force in federal energy/environmental policy during 10 terms as Indiana congressman, supported Carter's energy plan in the late 70s and a sweeping 1992 law enacting oil conservation, stiff nuclear plant controls and New Energy. 3rd on the House Energy and Commerce Committee before retiring in 1994, spent 10 years at Harvard's Kennedy School, then became President of Resources for the Future, a highly regarded nonpartisan research group on energy and environmental policy issues in 2005.

DOE runs EIA and EIA's contol of statistics is one way an administration controls energy policy. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
From the article’s introduction: “The Energy secretary drives [strategic and economic energy decisions and is] in charge of planning and administering energy research and development programs. The department also directs efforts to safeguard the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, coordinates research and development of new nuclear weapons systems, promotes nuclear non-proliferation abroad and operates the civilian nuclear waste repository and the four regional power administrations."