Why Obama's Picks For Energy And Environment Chiefs Show He Means Business On Climate Change
Gina McCarthy and Ernest Moniz via Wikimedia Commons/MITNew nominations for energy secretary and EPA head will probably face uphill battles in the Senate. The likely next secretary of energy is a physics professor researching new energy at MIT, and the next chief of the Environmental Protection Agency has spent years developing regulations to combat greenhouse gas emissions. Both were formally nominated today to fill some of the many empty posts in President Obama's cabinet as his second term rolls along. And both come from backgrounds that suggest Obama really does want to do something, at least regulation-wise, about climate change. Obama's Department of Energy pick, Ernest Moniz, researches how coal, natural gas, nuclear power and solar energy will fare in a future faced with tough requirements for carbon dioxide emissions. At a speech in Chile in February, Moniz said electricity demands will triple in the coming years, which will cause a...