Frankly, I Expected Worse

Ernest Moniz, MIT physicist, nominated as energy secretary

Moniz, who served as associate director of the White House office of science and technology policy and as undersecretary of energy under President Bill Clinton, is also devoted to the “all-of-the-above” strategy for energy that Obama has embraced. In a voluminous written and spoken record, Moniz has come out in favor of nuclear power, research into carbon capture and storage for coal, renewable energy and shale gas produced by hydraulic fracturing.

Like outgoing Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Moniz is alarmed about climate change and devoted to funding scientific research into low-carbon alternatives to fossil fuel.

But it sound like he's practical enough to know when something works and when it doesn't.  I take this as a sign that Obama will displease his environmental base and please his union base by approving the Keystone Pipeline, although possibly with some unpleasant and unwarranted caveats.