- 11/14/10 09:05 AM ET
The Washington Post’s Steve Mufson hit the road with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and came back with a nice Sunday piece on the Nobel prize-winning physicist.
A few tidbits:
* Chu had early doubts about initial estimates of how much oil was flowing from BP’s blown-out well. He thought they were too low, and he was proven right.
Here’s the Post story on Chu’s role in the spill response:
“Chu's scientific bent was unexpectedly useful over the summer, when the Obama administration was desperate to stop the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Chu was dispatched to BP's Houston offices to see what could be done.”
“He recommended that BP use gamma rays to see into the blowout preventer; its several inches of steel were obscuring other methods of figuring out whether the shear rams were clamping into the drill pipe.”
“He also tapped into his Stanford network to get names of engineers who could give advice, and he told Obama early on that the flow rate of oil pouring into the gulf might be greater than what BP was letting on. Weeks later, he marveled about how little innovation there was in the deep-water drilling business and how few gauges and backup mechanisms were installed on the blowout preventer.”
* Chu fears the U.S. is moving backward on recognizing the urgency of climate change (legislation collapsed on Capitol Hill this year) despite overwhelming evidence of warming.
“His biggest disappointment, he says, is that ‘two or three years ago I thought America and the world was really going to break forward and recognize that climate change is important, and now they are backtracking on that. The world economic recession has something to do with that, but the people who are against [climate action] have also tried to muddy the waters.’”
“Ironically,” he adds, “in the last couple of years we know more and every year it gets more compelling.”
* He breaks the bicycle speed limit on the Capital Crescent Trail while commuting to work.
The overall piece looks at Chu’s efforts to speed up adoption of low-carbon technologies like solar power, the perils of a physicist's plunge into D.C. politics, and more.
A few tidbits:
* Chu had early doubts about initial estimates of how much oil was flowing from BP’s blown-out well. He thought they were too low, and he was proven right.
Here’s the Post story on Chu’s role in the spill response:
“Chu's scientific bent was unexpectedly useful over the summer, when the Obama administration was desperate to stop the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Chu was dispatched to BP's Houston offices to see what could be done.”
“He recommended that BP use gamma rays to see into the blowout preventer; its several inches of steel were obscuring other methods of figuring out whether the shear rams were clamping into the drill pipe.”
“He also tapped into his Stanford network to get names of engineers who could give advice, and he told Obama early on that the flow rate of oil pouring into the gulf might be greater than what BP was letting on. Weeks later, he marveled about how little innovation there was in the deep-water drilling business and how few gauges and backup mechanisms were installed on the blowout preventer.”
* Chu fears the U.S. is moving backward on recognizing the urgency of climate change (legislation collapsed on Capitol Hill this year) despite overwhelming evidence of warming.
“His biggest disappointment, he says, is that ‘two or three years ago I thought America and the world was really going to break forward and recognize that climate change is important, and now they are backtracking on that. The world economic recession has something to do with that, but the people who are against [climate action] have also tried to muddy the waters.’”
“Ironically,” he adds, “in the last couple of years we know more and every year it gets more compelling.”
* He breaks the bicycle speed limit on the Capital Crescent Trail while commuting to work.
The overall piece looks at Chu’s efforts to speed up adoption of low-carbon technologies like solar power, the perils of a physicist's plunge into D.C. politics, and more.
Comments
Fook Chu…nuffsaid !
BY on 11/14/2010 at 09:52
Don't give in folks… The enviro-pagans are full of lies. Anthropogenic global warming is a lie. The Planet does what it does… Nothing humans can do about it. It's called Nature…
BY on 11/14/2010 at 10:03
Liberalism is a Mental Disorder.
Liberalism is ALL LIES.
Global Warmning is the biggest humdinger of them all.
Everything about Obama and his Czars are lies.
They should all be locked up.
Prominent scientists have come out and admitted the global warming farce is just that - A FARCE.
But who cares? Libs made up Carbon Footprints. And who has the biggest Carbon Footprint of them all? BARACK "INSANE" OBAMA AND IT'S BECAUSE HE HAS STOLEN FROM OUR COFFERS TO PAY FOR HIS AND HIS BITTER HALF'S LAVISH LIFESTYLE.
So let's spend trillions and trillions of dollars so Algore can buy 10 more DC10s so he can go to grade schools to brainwash the little kiddies into thinking killing their parents and themselves would save the earth.BY on 11/14/2010 at 10:32
Liberalism is ALL LIES.
Global Warmning is the biggest humdinger of them all.
Everything about Obama and his Czars are lies.
They should all be locked up.
Prominent scientists have come out and admitted the global warming farce is just that - A FARCE.
But who cares? Libs made up Carbon Footprints. And who has the biggest Carbon Footprint of them all? BARACK "INSANE" OBAMA AND IT'S BECAUSE HE HAS STOLEN FROM OUR COFFERS TO PAY FOR HIS AND HIS BITTER HALF'S LAVISH LIFESTYLE.
So let's spend trillions and trillions of dollars so Algore can buy 10 more DC10s so he can go to grade schools to brainwash the little kiddies into thinking killing their parents and themselves would save the earth.BY on 11/14/2010 at 10:32
Since when has the human footprint failed to make a mark on the planet and perhaps the pollution resulting from excessive human consumption of fossil fuels has contaminated the human mind? How arrogant to suggest that its cause is NATURE, as opposed to an absence of human nurturing of our blue-green planet! The lack of accountability by those narcissistic, myopic global warming detractors and delayers reminds me each night, as I gaze at the moon, why the US has failed to significantly advance scientifically since 1969.
BY on 11/14/2010 at 12:00
Stacy put the Kool Aid and the joint down long enough to see just how insignificant man is and what he does and or has done to the planet. Your belief is brought to courtesy of MYTHBUILDERS who only are using the gullible to profit from their schemes. This planet is billions of years old and quite frankly, it is going to do what the H3LL it wants to do regardless of mankind!
BY on 11/14/2010 at 13:54
Stacy, you conveniently tried to incorporate global warming and pollution. Two different issues. We all understand that mankind can pollute our local cities. But to suggest my cars exhaust can overcome the jet stream, the Sun, the Ocean currents, oceanic evaporation and resulting rains et-al is pure flapdoodle. How is it the USA is responsible for GW and India, China, Mexico, all of the middle east etc are not? This constant attack on the USA as the culprit is pure liberal idiocy. Think about it, the Pacific Ocean creates weather patterns that flow eastward and somehow is unable to overcome automobile exhaust..??? You need to put down the bong…
BY on 11/14/2010 at 14:35
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