Recently in Steven Chu Category

The general public, and who can blame it, might not have the best understanding of how the federal government develops energy policy and regulates industries.

Ask someone on the street which office polices gas producers and electric utilities, for instance, and he'll probably guess the Department of Energy. It has a broad title. Surely, that department takes care of everything energy-related, right?

Wrong. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission handles that job.

Senator Lindsey Graham's floating proposal for a "clean energy standard" got a shout-out Friday from one of the big companies that wants to build at least one nuclear plant in the US. EDF President Jean-Pierre Benque said companies like his could delay plans to build new nuclear units here if there is no requirement for a carbon-clean portfolio standard.

A price on carbon right away appeared to be less essential. "If there is no real incentive for renewable and nuclear through, first, a carbon clean portfolio standard, combined with a carbon price in the future (emphasis added), it could be difficult and could postpone investment decisions," Benque said at Platts' Nuclear Energy Conference.

It was Bike to Work Day, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu was into it. "I miss riding a bicycle," he told a crowd of hundreds of bike commuters today, moments after dismounting his $5,500 Italian road bike. "My security detail doesn't really let me do it."

It was only the second time Chu had pedaled the roughly eight miles from his Chevy Chase home to downtown Washington, our colleague Derek Sands reports. Not what Chu is used to; he rode to work every day in California.

"Clearly I am preaching to the converted," he told the bagel- and orange-munching cyclists. "It not only saves gasoline, it gets you in great shape."

T. Boone Pickens' idea for getting the US off foreign oil requires a crucial step in the road he outlines: switching a lot of vehicles to natural gas instead of oil-based fuels. It is the sometimes-forgotten step in the vaunted Plan. Get off foreign oil by getting lots of power from wind (and presumably solar). Since oil and electricity have little to do with each other, the middle step is shifting from natural gas-fired electricity to wind and solar, and sending the gas to vehicles instead.

Millions of people, including important members of Congress, have signed on to Pickens' vision -- without necessarily buying into the natural gas vehicle part of it. Energy Secretary Steven Chu still isn't signing on, either.