President-elect Barack Obama’s energy and environmental-policy appointees are seen by scientists and environmental-policy groups not only as constituting a strong team, but as sending a strong signal that his administration will value science and enforce environmental laws in a very different way from the Bush administration, the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Environmental groups lauded the appointees for their commitment to alternative fuels and fighting global warming. They welcomed them as symbols of science ascendant,” the paper reported.
The Times quotes Alan Nogee, director of the Clean Energy Program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, commenting on the nomination of Nobel prize-winning physicist Steven Chu as energy secretary:
“It’s such an incredible contrast, compared to the years of darkness under the current administration, to see a scientist in such a position of authority and influence in the Cabinet. “It’s night and day.”
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