Do You Know Who the Secretary of Energy is?

[Scriptor Ignotus]

I didn't. The price of gas is totally out of control. Don't you think it's odd that our Secretary of Energy has made virtually no public appearances to discuss this very important issue on TV or elsewhere? Or am I just not paying close enough attention?





http://www.doe.gov/organization/samuel_bodman.htm

[Uben]

1. Don't know the SOE

But we all know who the SOB is!

[KamaAina]

2. Not all that surprising

a huge amount of what the DOE does is nuclear-related research. :eyes:

http://www.slate.com/id/1006979

Is eliminating DOE still a good idea? Absolutely. For starters, the majority of DOE's $19 billion budget goes toward running the nuclear weapons labs, a responsibility that has to do with energy only in the sense that nuclear bombs release large amounts of it in the process of killing people. The Energy Department has always managed the weapons labs badly--before the latest round of security concerns there was the scandal of inadequate storage of dangerous radioactive materials. Even today, the Energy Department spends as much money on environmental cleanup as it does on maintaining the nuclear stockpile. In any event, it would make much better organizational sense for the Pentagon--which, for all its faults, is a model of bureaucratic efficiency compared to DOE--to be in charge of making nuclear weapons. Management of environmental cleanup could be transferred to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Want to guess how much of the Energy Department's budget goes toward what we all think of as its primary mission--i.e., subsidizing the energy industry? Twelve percent! (You don't believe Chatterbox? Check out Jerry Taylor's chapter on the Energy Department in the Cato Institute's new Handbook for Congress, on which this item is heavily reliant.) Among the energy sectors subsidized by DOE is the nuclear industry, even though a nuclear power plant hasn't been built in the United States in decades. (Bill Clinton promised to eliminate this subsidy in 1993, but it never happened.) We can argue about whether it's wise for the federal government to invest in renewable energy--Chatterbox favors it, Taylor opposes it--but we shouldn't pretend that DOE expends much effort on it. The programs worth keeping should be transferred to EPA. The power marketing administrations, of course, should have been privatized or transferred to the states long ago.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Found something interesting about Sec. of Energy...

all on Wiki...

Bodman been getting a Gov't paycheck from Bush since 2001...
as the Deputy Secretary of Commerce beginning in 2001.

Deputy Secretary of the Treasury beginning in February 2004.

Sec. of Energy beginning 2005.

He used to be in Finance, head of Fidelity.

But the interesting part is...before him, the Sec. Energy was
Spencer Abraham who was one of the founders of the Federalist Society.
( boooo hisssss)
Now a lobbyist.

[Hannah Bell]

3. Sam Bodman. Never heard of him. It is interesting, that. He's

been there for 3 years.

Interesting this, too, considering that Cabot was built with money from the slave trade:

"The Cabot Corporation has been involved in the mining of coltran in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Involvement of Cabot in this region has led to a United Nations Panel of Experts have accused corporations (Cabot among them) of being involved in the support of atrocities in this region. Accusations have included bribery of officials, in a business that extracts more than $6million in raw cobalt from the DRC per day.<2> Specifically, the UN panel accused Cabot Corporation of being involved in "unethical business practices."<3> The UN report further alleges that Cabot purchased coltan from the DRC during the war. While Cabot has denied these allegations, a report by the Belgian Senate states that Eagle Wings Resources International had a long‑term contract to supply Cabot with coltan.<4> These actions taken by Cabot were said to be against the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) “Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises,” a set of international standards for responsible corporate behavior. <5> The conflict in the DRC, in which warlords and militias have funded themselves by control of the mining industry, has led to the deaths of more than 5 million individuals.<6>"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabot_Corporation

[Hannah Bell]

4. cabot descendants still in mgt, too. Those big fortunes

do continue to pay dividends through the centuries....

http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:bE5cBoj-UMsJ:www.secinfo.com/dsvRu.a81.htm+bodman+Cabot&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us

cabots in the slave trade...1700s, 1800s.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=523257

http://books.google.com/books?id=Aa78ghyF2fIC&pg=PA231&lpg=PA231&dq=Cabot+%22slave+trade%22&source=web&ots=DbATanJnjo&sig=eCd6iJKkMC0e_SSQjfiY7O4SlXA&hl=en

[notadmblnd]

5. No, but I'd put money on it that he's a former oil exec

[lapfog_1]

6. Pretty sure it's this guy...

well, he has been the Bushies goto guy on energy policy.

[jtrockville]

8. Did he used to be an Arabian horse trader?

[usaftmo]

9. Ken Lay? From the grave? n/t