Two key senators are urging federal officials to complete their final environmental report in an "expeditious manner" on a proposal to put a wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod. Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and the panel's ranking Republican, Pete Domenici, also of New Mexico, have written a joint letter to the heads of the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Minerals Management Service to press their case. "We see no reason for the agency to delay issuance of the (final environmental review)," the senators wrote.
Note EU-Digest: With the announcement of his new energy-environmental team last week, President-elect Barack Obama has signaled a clear intention of pursuing policies that differ sharply from those of his predecessor. His choice for secretary of energy, the highly respected Nobel laureate Steven Chu, is no fan of fossil fuels. Chu's statements and policy positions suggest that he favors a shift away from one of the nation's most important and strategic industries. If that is the case, it might be wise to consider how realistic such a shift would actually be. In speeches, Chu has called fossil fuels the "culprit" in climate change. He says there is a "very pressing need" to find alternatives to gasoline and advocates converting solar energy into automobile fuel. According to the Wall Street Journal, he has called for "gradually ramping up gasoline taxes" (a position Obama has rejected because of the "additional burden" it would place on families). Once, famously, he termed coal "my worst nightmare." We tend to agree with Mr. Chu on higher taxes for gasoline. It is the only way to wean the public off gas guzzlers and to finance alternative energy research.
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