Secretary Chu's Misleading Energy Address

Yesterday, Energy Secretary Chu spoke at the National Press Club, and reiterated a message that’s quite common from his speeches over the past two years. But, he said there’s a new sense of urgency now that empowered Republicans have vowed to dramatically cut federal spending.

I say that the only sense of urgency is for the federal government to get on with dramatic federal spending cuts, and especially in the energy R&D area.

In his talk, “Is the Energy Race Our New ‘Sputnik’ Moment?,” Chu said countries such as China have replaced Russia as the biggest threats to U.S. dominance in science. These countries are gaining economic and political clout rapidly on the international stage because of their willingness to invest heavily in scientific research and to do so with long-term policies in place.

I say, is Chu talking about energy or is he talking about scientific research in general? If he is talking about both, I agree completely that they are worthy of consideration. However, this is not an area for government. It is private education and private industry that are responsible for our continued development in energy technology and science in general.

Chu says, “I think time is running out. We shouldn’t lose sight of this, and federal support for science R&D will be critical for our economic competitiveness.”

I say, "Baloney!" Federal support for R&D is not critical to our economic competitiveness. Economic competitiveness lies in the hands of private industry. Government should keep out of it, other than to see that there is fairness on the international playing field. Government can assure this by use of the "Import Duty" card.

Chu spoke on the day when the White House’s Office of Science and Technology issued a report recommending an annual spending of $16 billion in energy research and development, which would be a big boost from the current annual average spending of $5 billion.

The federal government has spent billions of dollars over the past two years to support research as well as demonstration and even commercial projects in a variety of energy-related industries, including renewable power, electric grid upgrades, electric cars and their batteries, biofuels and a host of technologies to reduce energy use in office buildings and homes. The largess came from the stimulus package that aimed to rescue the ailing economy, and its various programs are coming to an end.

This previous spending has been money down a rat hole. The economic leadership of energy for the US is efficiency. This comes about through use of coal and oil, without the furthering a way of R&D and production funds for wind and solar. Periodically our government officials hold China as an example for development of renewable energy, when in fact the amount of money spent by China on renewable energy is picqueune. Look at the actual Chinese funding numbers for development of coal and oil. You will see that funding for Chinese renewable energy is window dressing.

I previously proposed that Secretary Chu be fired from his job. I maintain that position. He not only is not doing his job but is actually doing damage to the country.