This editorial appeared in The Tri-City Herald.
Change often comes with a mixture of hope and apprehension – and so it is with President-elect Barack Obama's choice for energy secretary.
Steven Chu, Nobel Prize-winning physicist and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, is likely to bring a clear-eyed commitment to reducing America's dependence on foreign oil.
That's promising for the Tri-Cities, where the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory may well benefit from Chu's background and interests.
He's a cheerleader for alternative energy, but also has the scientific chops to realistically assess the limits and potential of various options.
That's good news for nuclear advocates, because any rational approach to increasing energy independence and reducing greenhouse gas emissions has to include nuclear power.
Just last year, Chu was co-chairman of an international panel of top energy experts, which recognized the potential for nuclear power to help solve the world's energy problems.
To read the complete editorial, visit The Tri-City Herald.