Hillary Clinton will start off the day with her 9:30 confirmation hearing for Secretary of State, in front of the Foreign Relations Committee. If you're in town, it will be in room SH-216. You can watch it live on CSPAN, if you can't attend. The committee vote on her confirmation will be on Thursday. I don't know anyone who is concerned. Senator Clinton is incredibly smart, and she's a wonk. I think she'll do great! And she'll need to hit the ground running as soon as possible.
At 10, there are three candidates up for confirmation hearings.
Arne Duncan will be up in front of Health, Education, Labour and Pensions. It will be held in room SD-430, although it's not on CSPAN's schedule. While Mr. Duncan will not be met with the "old friend conviviality" Tom Daschle found at his HELP hearing, I can find nothing written anywhere indicating this is anything but a done deal.
Meanwhile, Shaun Donovan will be in room SD-538, in front of Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Again, not on CSPAN. His HUD appointment has, comparatively, flown under the radar. But again, I could find no problems with the confirmation anywhere.
Steven Chu will, at the same 10 a.m. hour, be in room SD-106, in front of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. As reported, Bunning may be a little difficult, but I'm doubtful it will threaten the confirmation. CSPAN will be carrying it.
Let me start of by saying that I am the kind of liberal that cares about a lot of things, but the environment trumps them all. We only have one world, and if we screw it up, that's it. I do believe what science is telling us -- that there is a point of no return, and if we cross that point in terms of climate change, the results will be disastrous. As an engineering student who is specializing in sustainable energy engineering, I know that the danger of total worldwide catastrophe is greater then anyone wants to face. It's a crisis; one that we must respond to with immediate action, or our progeny will forever pay the price. Unfortunately, it is the hardest crisis for the American people to face, the hardest one for them to even believe. The right - not just the far right either - makes this even harder by constantly trying to manipulate the facts, to downplay the importance of science, and to play to peoples constant concern over the price of anything going up. Although this has mostly to do with money for big oil, I have my own little conspiracy theory that it has something to do with believing in the end of days, and that if we destroy the world it will be OK because then Jesus will return and save their souls. Personally, I love Jesus, but I think he wants me to protect the planet that God gave us, not destroy it.
That being said I want to emphasize that I am a FIRM supporter of human rights, of gay rights, of workers' rights, of equal opportunity, of equality, of an economy that doesn't create capitalist kings, and many other Democratic (big D) issues. I am appalled to my soul about torture, and my blood boils when I talk to people about Prop 8, etc. I say that because I don't want to get into a debate about what is more important between the environment and so many other incredibly important things, such as health care, civil liberties, and ending torture.
I actually learned about the selection of Steven Chu, as Secretary of Energy, in class today, the last class of the semester for Sustainable Energy Engineering (Mechanical Engineering 6800). It was almost divinely inspired that I did, because the whole class focused on the science behind climate change (the science is quite simple and undeniable by the way), the consequences of climate change, and the engineering behind a whole plethora of sustainable engineering technologies. My professor - Dr. Kent Udell - actually came from Berkeley and knew Steven Chu personally. He is also the Chair of our Department here at the University of Utah, and someone whom I greatly admire. He has aggressively pushed to make sustainability a theme of the ME department, even at the expense of pissing a lot of people off. He has not been afraid to talk about politics in class, even criticizing W. at times. Although I personally can't stand the guy, he has made a huge difference in making sure that engineers come out of the state of Utah ready and motivated to work on solving the energy crisis. In fac the class itself was retooled by him to be about Sustainability, whereas before it was about energy generation in general.
I decided that instead of talking about a video, I will just embed it. For me, this appointment made all the effort I put forth to elect Barack Obama worth it. Despite the taunts of the neo-cons, I never expected Obama to walk on water. In fact, I have always been prepared for him to compromise to get things done (as long he showed a little bit more back bone then the Democrats in Congress). But to appoint someone like Steven Chu as the Energy Secretary shows a commitment to the environment that I could not have dreamed possible from ANY politician, even Barack Obama.
I guess I am kind of in shock that this announcement hasn't been the biggest headline on every liberal newspaper and blog in the country, but then again I am a little biased. Watch the video, all nine minutes of it, and get a glimpse of what the future of America's energy policy has in store for it. Then please, let me know what you think.
It's a big day on the Hill today. 
