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At the Department of Energy (DOE), Steven Chalk has experienced the economic crisis as an opportunity, a chance to push energy efficiency. A career public servant, Chalk manages the distribution of nearly half the $36.7 billion in economic stimulus funds Congress granted DOE this year -- money issued for home weatherization, energy efficient buildings, plug-in hybrid vehicle technology, solar, wind and geothermal power.

At the Department of Energy (DOE), Steven Chalk has experienced the economic crisis as an opportunity, a chance to push energy efficiency. A career public servant, Chalk manages the distribution of nearly half the $36.7 billion in economic stimulus funds Congress granted DOE this year -- money issued for home weatherization, energy efficient buildings, plug-in hybrid vehicle technology, solar, wind and geothermal power.

"Just once, it would be nice if a president would level with Americans on energy. Barack Obama isn't that president. His speech the other night was about political damage control -- his own. It was full of misinformation and mythology. Obama held out a gleaming vision of an America that would convert to the "clean" energy of, presumably, wind, solar and biomass. It isn't going to happen for many, many decades, if ever. For starters, we won't soon end our "addiction to fossil fuels." Oil, coal and natural gas supply about 85 percent of America's energy needs. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects energy consumption to grow only an average of 0.5 percent annually from 2008 to 2035, but that's still a 14 percent cumulative increase. Fossil fuel usage would increase slightly in 2035 and its share would still account for 78 percent of the total. "

"Remy Chevalier is a brilliant and eccentric eco-activist with a "bright plan": he believes a very achievable switchover to green lighting will save enough energy to shut down our aging nuclear power plants -- in particular Indian Point, one of the oldest and most controversial plants, and roughly 30 miles north of Manhattan. Seth Leitman and I found this out while working on our book about green lighting, to be published early this fall by the Green Guru Guide series. "