By: Power Engineering |
Citing anonymous sources, Reuters has reported that President Obama is considering naming nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz to head the Department of Energy, after Nobel Prize-winning physicist Stephen Chu announced he would leave the post last week.
Moniz, director of MIT’s Energy Initiative, has served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and served as undersecretary at the Energy Department during the Clinton administration.
A Moniz appointment would likely be seen as a boon for the natural gas industry. Moniz has worked closely with the oil and gas industry, Reuters reports, and has called the risks related to hydraulic fracturing “challenging but manageable” with appropriate regulation.
