The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee plans to hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on April 9 to consider the nomination of Ernest Moniz to be secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE). Moniz would succeed current Energy Secretary Steven Chu (see Daily GPI, March 5). Moniz currently serves as science adviser in the administration and director of the MIT Energy Initiative. He is a familiar face to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where he has testified on a variety of energy issues. Moniz has a reputation of being supportive of natural gas development, calling it a “bridge fuel” even as he has called for more funding for renewable energy. In 2010 he co-authored an MIT study that concluded that gas would be a leader in reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over the next several decades, mostly by replacing older, inefficient coal plants with combined-cycle gas generation.

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