A big event is happening on campus next week that every Stanford student should know about. On Monday, Mar. 8, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will deliver a speech in Memorial Auditorium about clean energy innovation and education, exclusive for the Stanford community, followed by a special expert panel called “Educating the Energy Generation.”
This is an event you do not want to miss, so if you have class, skip it and recruit the rest of your classmates. Dr. Chu is one of the most important government officials in the world. He is overseeing the Department of Energy during the most critical time for energy policy in U.S. history, and the work of this department may truly shape our future more than any other area of government today.
Dr. Chu is pretty much the rock star of government officials. It is not just his position as America’s energy guru, or that he is the first Nobel Laureate appointed to the Cabinet. No, the coolest thing about Dr. Chu is that he is basically America’s nerd-in-chief, and he is the first to say so. In his Harvard commencement speech last year, Chu compared himself to past speaker Bill Gates: “Today, you have me. I am not a billionaire, but at least I am a nerd.”
But beyond his place as nerd-in-chief, there are three reasons why Secretary Chu offers a critical perspective and inspirational message that we should all listen to on Monday. (For the purpose of full disclosure, I co-wrote the invitation that brought him to campus.)
First, Dr. Chu is a strong and vocal supporter of clean energy who understands that energy and climate change are most fundamentally challenges of science and technology innovation. “In this revolution, there will be no single magical discovery that will rescue us,” he told the Caltech Class of 2009. “A price on carbon, energy efficiency standards and other policy mechanisms are necessary tools to align technology directions with environmental necessities. However, it is science and innovation that will provide the path forward.”
Dr. Chu is not afraid to publicly challenge the idea that “we have all the technologies we need” to solve these problems. As a world-renowned scientist, Chu gets the innovation imperative better than just about anyone. Speaking in 2008, he noted, “Another myth is we have all the technologies we need to solve the energy challenge. It’s only a matter of political will. I think political will is absolutely necessary […] but we need new technologies to transform the landscape.” According to Dr. Chu, Nobel-level energy breakthroughs are required in at least three areas, including electric batteries, solar power and the development of new crops for fuel.
Second, contrary to the myths espoused by many libertarian economists, Dr. Chu understands the importance of federal investment to advance technology innovation. In 2009 testimony before the Senate, Chu stated, “Our previous investments in science led to the birth of the semiconductor, computer and biotechnology industries that have added greatly to our economic prosperity. Now, we need similar breakthroughs on energy. We’re already taking steps in the right direction, but we need to do more.”
Indeed, the federal government played a pivotal role in developing a range of technologies that drove a significant portion of U.S. economic growth over the past 50 years, secured our competitiveness in the Cold War and improved the lives of ordinary Americans and people across the world. That is why we need a major increase in the federal budget for clean energy innovation today and why Dr. Chu’s position is so important.
Finally, Dr. Chu believes in the power of young people and wants to inspire and support us to meet these challenges. That is why the Department of Energy has proposed the nation’s first comprehensive federal initiative for clean energy education, called RE-ENERGYSE, which would invest tens of millions of dollars per year in energy education programs. RE-ENERGYSE is an important initiative for our generation, and Stanford students are leading a national effort this year to advance the proposal in Congress.
“This is truly the scientific and engineering challenge of our time,” Dr. Chu recently said in a speech at Google. “Scientists and engineers have come to our nation’s aid in times of need before, and it is time to do so again. I’m calling on all of America’s young scientists and researchers to consider tackling this challenge. The stakes could not be higher. Great ideas have transformed our world before. But the great ideas on energy might do more than just change our world; they might help save it.”
Teryn Norris is a weekly columnist for The Stanford Daily, Director of Americans for Energy Leadership and Senior Advisor at the Breakthrough Institute. E-mail him at [email protected].