Obama Starts Filling Energy Team/Reuters report
By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama will nominate Steven Chu, a Nobel physics laureate and advocate of alternative energy research, as his energy secretary, a Democratic aide said on Wednesday.
Chu, who would be the first Asian-American to lead the department, would work closely with former Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner, who will head a new council coordinating White House policy on energy, climate and environmental issues.
Obama, who has said energy and environmental matters would be important to his administration, is filling out the team that will oversee them.
He wants to spend billions of dollars to promote alternative energy sources and create millions of green energy jobs.
Lisa Jackson, the chief of staff for New Jersey's governor, will also be nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a Democratic aide confirmed. She would be the first African-American to lead that agency.
Earlier, a Democratic official said Obama had chosen Nancy Sutley, a deputy mayor of Los Angeles, to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Browner, a principal at global strategy firm The Albright Group LLC, heads Obama's advisory team on energy and the environment. During President Bill Clinton's administration, she became the longest-serving EPA administrator.
Chu, whose appointment requires U.S. Senate confirmation, shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics for developing methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light and has been director of the Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California since 1994.
The laboratory's website said Chu was an early advocate for finding scientific solutions to climate change and had guided the laboratory on a new mission to become the world leader in alternative and renewable energy research, particularly the development of carbon-neutral sources of energy.
A spokesman for the Lawrence Berkeley laboratory said of Chu's selection: "We don't really know about it. Whatever contacts the Obama people have had with Steve Chu, he kept it offline from the laboratory."
Chu could not be reached for comment. He is traveling in Asia and Europe and will be back at work on Monday.
Jackson was New Jersey's environmental protection commissioner until she became the governor's chief of staff this month. She previously worked at the federal EPA for almost two decades.
(Writing by Tom Doggett, additional reporting by Deborah Charles; Editing by David Alexander and Peter Cooney)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama will nominate Steven Chu, a Nobel physics laureate and advocate of alternative energy research, as his energy secretary, a Democratic aide said on Wednesday.
Chu, who would be the first Asian-American to lead the department, would work closely with former Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner, who will head a new council coordinating White House policy on energy, climate and environmental issues.
Obama, who has said energy and environmental matters would be important to his administration, is filling out the team that will oversee them.
He wants to spend billions of dollars to promote alternative energy sources and create millions of green energy jobs.
Lisa Jackson, the chief of staff for New Jersey's governor, will also be nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a Democratic aide confirmed. She would be the first African-American to lead that agency.
Earlier, a Democratic official said Obama had chosen Nancy Sutley, a deputy mayor of Los Angeles, to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Browner, a principal at global strategy firm The Albright Group LLC, heads Obama's advisory team on energy and the environment. During President Bill Clinton's administration, she became the longest-serving EPA administrator.
Chu, whose appointment requires U.S. Senate confirmation, shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics for developing methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light and has been director of the Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California since 1994.
The laboratory's website said Chu was an early advocate for finding scientific solutions to climate change and had guided the laboratory on a new mission to become the world leader in alternative and renewable energy research, particularly the development of carbon-neutral sources of energy.
A spokesman for the Lawrence Berkeley laboratory said of Chu's selection: "We don't really know about it. Whatever contacts the Obama people have had with Steve Chu, he kept it offline from the laboratory."
Chu could not be reached for comment. He is traveling in Asia and Europe and will be back at work on Monday.
Jackson was New Jersey's environmental protection commissioner until she became the governor's chief of staff this month. She previously worked at the federal EPA for almost two decades.
(Writing by Tom Doggett, additional reporting by Deborah Charles; Editing by David Alexander and Peter Cooney)
Views: 124
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Snake Stewart on
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Just out of curriosity, How many were left behind prior to NCLB. It had to have been a great deal, to have implemented such a drastic measure ?
I walk the halls every day. I see first hand what the teachers of this day and time have to try and deal with. It aint pretty. But something has to be done. There are many fine teachers out there. There are many that arent. The unions make it nearly impossible to do anything once tenure takes place. A failing school isnt any different then a bad landman. He blames you for being uneducated and you blame the system for not making them accountable for their actions or lack there of. Sounds real familiar doesnt it ?
It starts in the home. How do you make parents accountable ? You dont. You have to have a teacher that can overcome the obstacles and force little Johhny to learn even against his will if need be. I am sure that I will get a few upset by this but what other option is there. You simply cant concentrate on the students that want to learn and forget about the ones that dont. Nor can you spend all of your time with little Johnny and let the others miss out on what they should have been learning.
Tough decissions, no doubt ! Who else has been willing to grab that bull by the horns ? Like him or not, Bush at least made an attempt that I havent seen from anybody else. Trying to break this horrible cycle that has some areas in a grip that will not be loosed easily.In the imortal words of Forrest Gump.......... "Thats all I got to say 'bout thaaauuut."
Wrap up , stay warm and have a good one guys !
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Hey KB,
Sounds like the info you read may have come from one of the many organizations that detest the intrusion of the Feds into our state sponsored institutions of learning. I used to get a bunch of them in the mail.
As far as I know we still have Head Start. Havent seen any literature showing the great steps that this well funded baby sitting program has made for the kids.Well intentioned but noneffective. Worse so then NCLB.
I still question, what was in place prior to NCLB, or was there even any need for anybody to do anything ?
I go back several decades to when our education system started failing our kids. There were several things that started the ball rolling down hill but some of the big ones had to do with being PC (Politically Correct).
A lessoning of the moral fiber, which includes but isnt limited to, RESPECT & DISCIPLINE.
If you cant punish an 8 year old child because you are afraid to infringe on his rights to establish his own character as a child, when he/she tells you to go f*^@ yourself, exactly how much learning is going to take place that day ?
Permalink Reply by KB, rsp'd maddog 9 hours ago
NCLB has worsened the stats, put enormous extra burdens on teachers (without any increase in pay)...
If someone got into teaching for the money, then they arent even qualified to be in a classroom, IMO. Every pay increase that the many great teachers get goes to the nonperforming as well.Throwing money at it hasnt, nor will it solve this problem. The powerful teachers unions will continue to fight change at every corner. Heck, they may be next in line for some bailout money. They are certainly starting to remind me of the guys in Detroit.
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Permalink Reply by Two Dogs, Pirate on
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Every year it's a bunch of new buzz words in education. With each new buzz word comes a new learning curve for the teachers. I jumped ship when inclusion was the new buzz word. It made no sense to me to include a 15 year old B/D student, working at a second grade level into a 9th grade classroom with regular students. NCLB was just another to go on top of the many other buzz words. NCLB may could work if you ditch many of the pre-buzz-fed crap.
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Permalink Reply by sesport on -
"micromanaging education" THANK YOU, Jim ... Most of those "research based" programs implemented were pork. The funding was top heavy, used to create more "administrative" jobs, very little $ reached the classroom level in terms of hiring more teachers for the classrooms.
KB is right, teachers are faced with mountains of redundant paperwork, which requires hours to fill out, so they find themselves sacrificing instructional time to get it done.
Also, now all children are expected to achieve as if going on to college, which is not necessarily where all the talents lie, but it boxes kids into conforming to be one kind of learner, doesn't address individual talents well.
As far as "bad" teachers go, yes the "bad" is in every profession. However, since teaching is no longer up there in respectability with other professions (just take a look at the # of students graduating college with education degrees), parents no longer support or urge their children to become teachers. Being a teacher has become synonymous with being a nanny. So we have to start looking at people who might not have "the calling."
Discipline ... funny how one of the most popular current shows is Super Nanny. Tell me, would your mother have EVER thought of going public to tell & show the nation how she couldn't manage disciplining her own children? Now it's glorified. Arrggghhh, makes ya' want to make em walk the plank. -
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Permalink Reply by Dorcheated A1 on
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What a great opening shot. I see your still on your game give me a couple of weeks to get back into the swing and i'll get everybody fired up.
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Permalink Reply by sesport on
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"Some one said the words ..."
That one will keep me in stitches for a few days, maybe good for a couple of weeks.
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But what was the non-micro managed answer to the problem ?
Or might I ask what was the reason that we are so far behind just about every educated nation in terms of how our kids perform scholastically ?
I am of the belief that talent can be God given or brought out in an individual through instruction. Whether it boxes someone into conforming or not, being able to read and function in society shouldnt be considered a talent that a child has or has not.Instead of sacrificing instructional time for doing all that paperwork, maybe it should be considered homework. Kinda like those mountains of homework the kids are expected to do nightly.
I guess being a teacher has become, in the last few years , a way for many to make a rather nice living now that money is the best that it ever has been. For a job that lasts about 7 months a year, when you figure in all the Holidays and breaks, it has attracted many who arent qualified or that shouldnt even be in a classroom.But when funds become available, you better spend it or lose it,even if you dont really need it.
Until teachers and administrators, as well as the government buying votes with funding, put a halt to business as usual, the profession will never be viewed in the manner that it should be viewed. Because to someone on the outside looking in, it appears that the needs of the teacher are more important then the needs of the pupil.
P.S. Congress has been pimpin' pages and pagettes for a mighty long time. Surely you guy's arent going to try and hang that on "W" as well are you ? Leave room for critisism and this next fellow. He hasnt even gotten out of the gates yet and even the liberal media is starting to pick spots on him. We will see how much better our little classroom angels are doing in 4 years. Shouldnt take that long considering the "Dems" had all the answers running up to this. What's this going to be .. TNLB.....................................................This Nation Left Behind ?
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Permalink Reply by sesport on
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If all you say is true, education has become that cushy, overpaid job for not doing much and have all one's needs met, how would you explain the steep drop in college enrollments in the field of education?
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Never said it was cushy, my shale friend.I said a nice way to make a living and money was as good as it has ever been, by far. I believe we just got to the national average within the last couple of years.
Being one of the least likely jobs to have where you dont get cussed at or even spit on or slapped, makes the job very unattractive to many. Part of the reason is due to the 2 essential items that I mentioned earlier. Respect & Disipline, or a lack there of. A teacher has to be more like a cop now due to the problems that these kid wear on their backs day in and day out. Doesnt justify whats not happening in our classrooms tho. I love and respect more teachers then you can shake a stick at. I have several educators in my imediate family and several aspiring to be. This just happens to be a case of where one or two bad apples can spoil the whole bunch, if located in a critical enough place.
Please dont think that I am anti teacher cause I am not. If I have come across this way I am sorry. I am anti "bad teacher". I am also sick of the establishment looking out for themselves and not the kids. An article in yesterdays paper showed us as faultering even tho SAT scores were up. 49th out of 50 states. Something has to give.
Have a good one S.P.
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Permalink Reply by Dorcheated A1 on
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Hello KB,
As you know this one of my specialties is taking kids who do not do well in school and trying to make them successful in life. I must pat myself on the back because I'm very good at. After all I was one them. Kids can be trained just like anything else but the trainer has to have a insight into their world. You can have all the Vo-Tech you want but if you don't have a teacher who understands and can communicte with kids it won't do you any good, which is part of the problem today. Of course parents are the other problem but even with these two strikes against them kids can be saved if you take the time to work with them and teach them.
1. First and most important you teach them repect for their fellow workers, supervisors, people in general and the company they work for. I along with my supervisors will at time clean the bathrooms, do I enjoy it no! But it does send a message to the kids that I'm willing to work at any level to get the job done and so will you.
2. Discipline in the work place. The work place is not a Democracy it's a Dictatorship and Dorcheat is the Dictator. If you come to the Dictator with new ideas and suggestions. I am eager to listen to them, and if there good will implement them and reward you for them. If you come to the Dictator and tell him you not going to do something then it's OFF WITH YOUR HEAD. Ok it's not that bad, but I do make them understand that they are now in a different world than school or home. That your mother won't be able to get you out of a trouble here. That it's time grow up and be a man and act like one. Pull your pants up, turn your cap around and use a rubber. Take care of the kids you got and treat your girlfriend or with wife with respect. Is it my job to make them a better person not really, but if they are going to succeed in life someone has too do it.
3. I have to shorten it up a little bit, but just to touch on your point about college KB. The United States Government both Democrat and Republicans alike is filled with the best minds the Ivey League has to offer and look at the freaky mess they have gotton us into. Maybe college should just be for Doctors and Dentist.
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Permalink Reply by Dorcheated A1 on
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Good example Sandstone.
I had a teacher in high school his name was Rodney Watson. The name might ring a bell with some people because he is the Assistant Superintendent of Caddo Parish schools. Everyday, I would come into his class and lay my head down on the desk and try to go to sleep. Mr. Watson whispered in my ear one day "Look even if you don't take the test, I want you to learn something you might be able to use someday" He and I didn't know it at the time but it was his example as a teacher and his never give up attitude that stuck with me longer than the science he was teaching.
And yes my English teacher let me sleep.
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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D. You Good. But you Bad, too. LOL!!!! Thanks for taking an interest in young people and working to help them find a place for themselves in this rough ole world of ours. Maybe some will find a meaningful career opportunity in the HS. Salute!
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