Obama energy pick strong green voice: experts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has backed up campaign promises to focus on green energy with an Energy Secretary nominee who experts say will provide scientific expertise and pragmatism to the search for new clean sources of fuel.

Obama's pick, Nobel physics laureate Steven Chu, has been a strong advocate for making buildings more efficient to cut energy use to counter global warming and climate change.

"If I were emperor of the world, I would put the pedal to the floor on energy efficiency and conservation for the next decade," Chu told Reuters in an interview last year.

Chu has led the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since August 2004. Under Chu's leadership, the lab has pressed aggressively to develop new alternative energy technology.

Chu's focus on advanced technology and renewable energy and lack of background in fossil fuels signals Obama expects the energy department to concentrate on new fuels, experts said.

"I believe that the selection of Steve Chu suggests that President-elect Obama is quite serious about reordering the energy sector and executing his vision of a green economy," said Jerry Taylor, a senior fellow at Cato Institute.

Unlike previous energy secretaries, Chu has little experience in business or politics. Current Energy Secretary Sam Bodman ran a chemical company and was deputy secretary at the Treasury Department before heading the Energy Department.

But experts say Chu brings technical prowess to the role.

"He will bring scientific rigor to President-elect Obama's clean energy and global warming agenda," said Dan Weiss, an energy expert at the Center for American Progress think-tank.

"He is that rare combination of distinguished scientist, accomplished manager, and savvy advocate," Weiss said.

Some believe a new council created by Obama to coordinate White House policy on energy, climate and environmental issues, may keep Chu from having too much of a hand in shaping policy.

"That council probably becomes place where policy options get hammered out and decisions about how to proceed," said David Pumphrey, energy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The energy secretary becomes part of that process, but his voice is one of several at the table."

But Chu will be able to provide balance and realism to the council's strategic vision, said Kevin Book, a senior analyst of energy policy at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey and Co, Inc.

Fellow scientists see Chu as a persuasive visionary able to bridge science with the private sector and government, said Chris Somerville, who works with Chu, and is director of the Energy Biosciences Institute at Berkeley.

"He's definitely going to be the leader and a source of the lot of ideas" at the energy department, Somerville said.

"Here in Silicon Valley ... one sees innovation moving out into the marketplace, in world-changing ways. I think he very much has a sense that scientific knowledge and engineering can change things, fundamentally," Somerville said.

(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and Matthew Robinson; Editing by David Gregorio)