DOE Secretary Chu Announces Resignation
Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced that he will leave his post by the end of February or when a successor is approved and in office.
Chu, who announced his decision on Feb. 1, has led the Dept. of Energy since early 2009, a period during which several regions of the United States experienced the start of a natural gas development boom.
At DOE, Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, oversaw the growth of the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E) which supports high-risk, high-reward technology development, as well as energy-efficiency block grants.
Chu also oversaw the administration of the troubled federal loan guarantee program for clean energy, which came under fire when the one of the program’s beneficiaries—Solyndra, a solar company in Fremont, Calif.—went into bankruptcy. In a letter to DOE employees announcing his resignation, Chu defended the loan program. He said: “While critics try hard to discredit the program, the truth is that only 1% of the companies we funded went bankrupt. That 1% has gotten more attention than the 99% that have not.”
Environmental groups credit Chu with pushing the renewable-energy sector forward. Gene Karpinski, League of Conservation Voters president, said in a statement, “Secretary Chu has led the Energy Dept. at a time when our nation made the single largest investment ever in clean energy and doubled our use of renewables.” Karpinski added, “He has proven himself to be one of the world’s greatest scientists and an ally in the fight against climate change.”
Chu said in his letter, “In the last four years, the production of clean, renewable energy from wind and solar has doubled—driven in part by our administration’s investments in the development and deployment of the latest technologies.” According to the American Wind Energy Association, 42% of new energy capacity in the U.S. was from wind.
Chu said DOE made “historic progress” in cleaning up nuclear contamination from the Cold War, reducing the total footprint by nearly 75% and permanently cleaning up 690 sq miles of contaminated land. But he also acknowledged that "the environmental cleanup projects still have considerable technical and project management challenges."
In particular he cited an effort focused on the waste treatment and immobilization plant at the sprawling Hanford complex in Washington state, saying DOE has been working with a restructured environmental management team and has invited state officials "to join in our frank discussions." He added that "the DOE team is rebuilding trust that thad broken down over the last decade."
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement that Chu "did a lot of good in his time at the Dept. of Energy.” Wyden added, “As President Obama looks at potential successors, I hope he keeps in mind the importance of encouraging innovation in new energy technologies, safeguarding taxpayer dollars and continuing the manufacturing revival spurred by stable natural gas supplies.”
Rumored candidates to succeed Chu include former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), former governors Christine Gregoire (Wash.), Chet Culver (Iowa), Jennifer Granholm (Mich.) and Bill Ritter (Colo.)—all Democrats—and MIT Physics Professor and former DOE under secretary Ernest Moniz.
Before becoming DOE's chief, Chu led the department's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and also taught at the University of California. In his letter, Chu said he had told President Obama shortly after the election that he and his wife "were eager to return to California." Chu and added that he wants to "return to an academic life of teaching and research, but will still work to advance the missions that we have been workign on together for the last four years."
