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Obama to Nominate Steve Chu as Energy Secretary

President-elect Barack Obama will announce the nomination of Berkeley Lab director Steve Chu for Secretary of Energy at a 2 p.m. (PST) press conference today in Chicago. A live stream of the press conference will be available in the Building 50 and 66 Auditoriums. Locations that are registered with ESnet can also connect via video conferencing using access code 85248. These locations include 50B-4205, 90-3075, Potter St., the Joint Genome Institute and the Washington D.C. Office. Staff can also access news outlets (such as C-Span) online to view a live broadcast of the press conference.

“I am honored to be selected as the nominee for Secretary of Energy,” said Director Chu in his remarks. “In the years ahead, the United States faces extraordinary challenges and the Department of Energy will be a major force in meeting these challenges. Its role is to support energy research and development that will lead to innovation in the private sector, to nurture broad-based scientific research that is essential for our future prosperity, and to provide science leadership to minimize the proliferation and use of nuclear weapons.

“In our current economic crisis, people are losing their jobs and homes, and companies are collapsing.  Some say we have to concentrate exclusively on re-establishing the health of our economy. I look forward to being part of the President-elect’s team which believes that we must repair the economy and put us on a path towards sustainable energy. 

"President-elect Obama has already set the tone and the pace for moving our country forward with optimism and calm determination. I hope to emulate his example. With these virtues, the United States and the world can and will prevail over our economic, energy and climate change challenges.”  More>