WASHINGTON -- Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, Monday urged President Barack Obama to name Shaw Group CEO Jim Bernhard as the new energy secretary. But the recommendation may have come too late. Bloomberg News is quoting two un-named officials as suggesting that Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is now the leading candidate to replace Steven Chu as energy secretary. Chu...
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, Monday urged President Barack Obama to name Shaw Group CEO Jim Bernhard as the new energy secretary. But the recommendation may have come too late.
Rep. Rodney Alexander
Bloomberg News is quoting two un-named officials as suggesting that Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is now the leading candidate to replace Steven Chu as energy secretary. Chu announced Friday he would step down when his successor is confirmed by the Senate.
While Carter may be the current frontrunner, Bernhard can still get the job. Since the decision is made by one person, President Barack Obama, it matters little who has the initial advantage because a president can quickly decide to go in another direction.
Bernhard did something unusual last week when he confirmed to a Baton Rouge TV station that he's one of a number of candidates being considered for the energy post. The energy secretary is a key official, along with the president's environmental advisors and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Administration, in developing administration environmental and energy policy.
Whoever gets the job would be working with a new EPA Administrator, given the recent resignation of New Orleans native Lisa Jackson. The Energy secretary is likely to play a major role in the administration's promised polices to address global warming - likely putting the secretary into a firestorm of controversy with congressional Republicans skeptical about the scientific case for global warming and some of the likely recommendations to curb carbon emissions linked to the warming earth.
Alexander made the case that Bernhard, who is selling the multi-faceted Shaw Group to Chicago Bridge & Iron Co., would be an effective energy secretary. Shaw was a major contractor for the federal government during the re-building efforts after Hurricane Katrina.
"Jim is a proven leader whose relevant experience and skill make him a top contender for this critical role, especially as America continues to fight to become energy independent," Alexander said. "Additionally, he is a responsible businessman and comes from an energy-producing state putting him in a unique position to offer fresh ideas to help lower energy costs and achieve energy sustainability. I have no doubt Jim Bernhard is the right selection, and I urge the president to name him as Sec. Steven Chu's successor as soon as possible."
While Bernhard is a former chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party, the Shaw Group Political Action Committee has donated to candidates of both parties.
For the 2012 cycle, the Shaw Group PAC donated $201,250, 63 percent to Republicans and 37 percent to Democrats. Among the recipients was Alexander, who received $10,000 for his successful re-election campaign.
Obama praised Chu, a Nobel Prize winning physicist who at times had a hard time selling the administration's energy policies to a skeptical Republican-led House of Representatives.
"Steve has been a great friend, a tremendous colleague..., over the past four years working on a whole range of energy issues but also designing a cap to plug a hole in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico when nobody else could figure it out," Obama said of Chu's role in the 2010 BP oil spill crisis. "And that's typical of the incredible contributions that he's made to this country."