Chu at Energy Featherbeds in Subservience to his Emperor

This is recent. Chu encouraged revelry as he revealed this at Brookhaven, one of several of his favorite spending spots. This dough goes largely for construction projects in support of existing games. It is a way to blow our money fast, as the great Emperor Obama dictates.


$1.2B Allocated to Science

UPTON, N.Y., March 24, 2009 – $1.2 billion in new science funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was announced Monday by Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Steven Chu. The amount includes support for research in particle and plasma physics, solar energy, solid-state lighting and superconductivity.

Chu said the money will be used for major construction, laboratory infrastructure and research efforts sponsored by the DoE Office of Science. He made the announcement during a visit to Brookhaven National Laboratory, one of 10 national laboratories overseen by the Office of Science.

Many of the projects funded under the Recovery Act are located at national labs (21 national laboratories and technology centers operate under the DoE). “Leadership in science remains vital to America’s economic prosperity, energy security and global competitiveness,” said Chu. “These projects not only provide critically needed short-term economic relief but also represent a strategic investment in our nation’s future. They will create thousands of jobs and breathe new life into many local economies, while helping to accelerate new technology development, renew our scientific and engineering workforce, and modernize our nation’s scientific infrastructure.”

The package also provides substantial support for both university- and national laboratory-based researchers, working on problems in fields ranging from particle and plasma physics to biofuels, solar energy, superconductivity, solid-state lighting, and electricity storage and materials science, among others, Chu said. Included among the approved projects:
$150 million to accelerate ongoing construction on the National Synchrotron Light Source-II at Brookhaven. This new, state-of-the-art high-intensity light source is expected to facilitate major breakthroughs in next-generation energy technologies, materials science and biotechnology that could lead to advances in battery technology and photovoltaics.

$123 million for major construction, modernization and needed decommissioning of laboratory facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), in Berkeley, Calif.; and Brookhaven.

$65 million to accelerate construction of the 12-Billion-Electron-Volt Upgrade of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF) in Newport News, Va. The CEBAF upgrade will provide an international community of physicists with a cutting-edge facility for studying the basic building blocks of the visible universe. The advanced particle accelerator technology being developed for this project also has had important medical applications.

$277 million for Energy Frontier Research Centers, to be awarded on a competitive basis to universities and national laboratories across the country. These centers will accelerate the basic science needed to develop plentiful and cost-effective alternative energy sources and will pursue advanced fundamental research in fields ranging from solar energy to nuclear energy systems, biofuels, geological sequestration of carbon dioxide, clean and efficient combustion, solid-state lighting, superconductivity, hydrogen research, electrical energy storage, catalysis for energy and materials under extreme conditions.

$90 million to create and save jobs for other core research, providing support for graduate students, postdocs and PhD scientists.

$69 million to create a national-scale prototype 100-Gb/s data network linking research centers nationwide.

$330 million for operations and equipment at Office of Science major scientific user facilities, used annually by more than 20,000 researchers.

Facilities supported by Recovery Act funding include, among others, the Spallation Neutron Source at ORNL, the world’s most intense pulsed accelerator-based neutron source, used in advanced materials science, chemistry and biology research; the Nanoscale Science Research Centers located at five national labs nationwide, which provide nanotechnology instrumentation; the ARM Climate Research Facility, a collection of climate measurement facilities located around the globe that gather atmospheric data needed to reduce uncertainty about climate change; the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which provides unique instrumentation and computational capabilities for environmental science; and the Linac Coherent Light Source, currently under construction at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) in Menlo Park, Calif., which will enable scientists for the first time to observe chemical reactions at the molecular level in real time.

In addition, the Recovery Act funding provides $125 million for needed infrastructure improvements across nine DoE national laboratories: Ames Laboratory in Ames, Iowa; Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill.; Brookhaven National Laboratory; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.; LBNL; ORNL; PNNL in Richland, Wash.; SLAC; and TJNAF.

The $1.2 billion is the first installment of a total of $1.6 billion allocated by Congress to the DoE Office of Science under the Recovery Act legislation. Officials are still working to facilitate approval and release of the remaining $371 million. For more information, visit: http://www.energy.gov/

And here is more:
Obama and Energy Chief Push Innovation
By Andrew C. Revkin
Andrew C. Revkin/ The New York Times Energy Secretary Steven Chu described the need for an energy revolution, driven by basic research, at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island.
[UPDATE, 9:15 p.m. See below.] Three months ago Dot Earth asked, “Are Chemists, Engineers on Green Jobs List?” The answer appears to be yes.

In a two-pronged push, President Obama and Steven Chu, the secretary of energy and Nobel laureate in physics, spent the middle of the day Monday laying out the administration’s plans to link economic renewal with an energy revolution.Mr. Obama met with energy-technology entrepreneurs and researchers near the White House at an event called “Investing in Our Clean Energy Future.” One highlight is $400 million set aside under the economic-recovery bill for an advanced research agency for energy, Arpa-E, modeled along the lines of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

On eastern Long Island, Dr. Chu had a somewhat wistful air as he toured projects at Brookhaven National Laboratory. (It was his first stop at a national laboratory since taking his cabinet job.) He peppered staff scientists and engineers with questions about physics projects related to the origins of the universe and possible causes of Alzheimer’s disease before being nudged forward by hurried aides. He was there to announce how $1.2 billion in the stimulus bill would be spent on science projects at Brookhaven and elsewhere around the country’s network of 10 national laboratories.

[UPDATE] After visiting various research buildings, he gave a pep talk on the energy revolution he said was vital if the United States and the world are to avoid conflicts over limited supplies of oil and eventual disruptive impacts from human-caused global warming.

Over and over, in examples from the first transcontinental telephone call to the transistor to methods for synthesizing ammonia (and thus nitrogen fertilizer), Dr. Chu pointed out how great technological advances benefiting society grew out of fundamental breakthroughs in basic science.

And he pointed out how many such breakthroughs grew from teamwork pushing boundaries of understanding in ways where chances of failure were far higher than chances of success.
Then he noted how rare it was — even at intellectually adventurous places like Bell Labs, where he worked for nine years — to take real chances. The great thing about Bell Labs, he said, was its reliance on nurturing young talent. “Bell Labs did not hire established scientists,” Dr. Chu said. “They grew their own.”

Now, he said, the country’s challenge is to grow a generation of energy innovators, a challenge made harder because innovation has never been much of a priority within the energy industry.
But he ended on an enthusiastic note, describing rising numbers of students who appear to be turning toward careers in science and technology — not just because Wall Street suddenly doesn’t look so cozy.

So, today I mailed the following:

March 27, 2008
Secretary
DOE
1000 Independence Avenue, S. W.
Washington, D. C. 20585

While you paraded around Brookhaven recently you said something like this according to the New York Times or whatever:

Now, he said, the country’s challenge is to grow a generation of energy innovators, a challenge made harder because innovation has never been much of a priority within the energy industry.

Of course, the energy industry was not built by a bunch of PhDs from the cartel that is run by university administrators.

Innovation within the energy industry has been a big deal since its basic start with the Edison General Electric Company and a whole set of Edison companies from coast to coast. It continures.

If you ever want to see innovation in action, get out in the field and observe American artisans at work as they untangle the aftermaths of a whole range of natural phenomena.

Edison started a game of innovation that has never ended in the energy industry. His right hand man, Samuel Insull, migrated to the United States from England as a young man in 1881, linking up with Thomas Edison and eventually co-founding the company that would become General Electric. In 1892 Insull moved to Chicago where he began to assemble his empire of utility and transportation companies.

Our nuke plants are in trouble because of interference from feds. Innovation has not been lacking. Carter killed reprocessing, Obama is killing more. And as Obama’s minion it is unlikely that you will get anything useful completed other than running up the cost of juice.

Robert H. Leyse, 222 Elkhorn Road, Sun Valley, ID 83353