Comment Re:Terrible Idea (Score 1) 498
For anyone who doesn't want to deal with QuickTime, "The World's Energy Problem and What We Can Do About It" also appears to be on YouTube @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snuzWU4-gjc
For anyone who doesn't want to deal with QuickTime, "The World's Energy Problem and What We Can Do About It" also appears to be on YouTube @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snuzWU4-gjc
Any real policy involves trade offs between what's best for a large number of different groups, each of which has different needs, goals, tolerance for risk, etc. Deciding how to make those tradeoffs and select who's interests take priority in any given situation is largely subjective. While science can help determine how feasible a given proposal is (and even then, it's more in the realm of engineering than science), it's silent on which solution is best.
I'd like to direct you to Dr. Chu's opening speech from UC Berkeley's California & The Future of Environmental Law & Policy event. While 45 minutes is far too short to go over everything (and far too long for a crowd that almost never bothers to RTFA), he addresses some of the points you make. This is from back in 2005 or so, I gather, but it's clear he has a good grasp on the challenges and potential solutions to be found. I can only imagine that he's refined his positions and proposals since then, but is the first related thing I found when I looked this morning. There's probably something more recent and relevant out there.
In any case, I applaud this choice. It sure beats the venture capitalist/CEO/treasury wonk we've got now (in his credit, he does have an Sc.D. in chemical engineering - but it seems like he's never used it, preferring to go into the financial sector instead). Before him, we had a law professor. Before that, someone who studied French/poli-sci/foreign affairs. Before that, another lawyer. I'm sure you get the idea... There has never been someone with anywhere near his credentials appointed to the job.
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