President-elect Obama has chosen Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, who heads the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to be the next energy secretary. He should have picked a street-fighter instead. Chu is making enormous contributions to nano-solar and bio-based energy technology. He’s also a strong believer in the need to combat global warming. But given his demeanor and his scientific background, it’s very likely that ExxonMobil, Peabody Coal and the rest of the dinosaur lobby will hand him his lunch.
