Energy Secretary Steven Chu, in an interview with Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria, said Obama administration energy policy is focused on slashing CO2 to "get to the lowest possible level of carbon as quickly as possible and not only at the lowest cost but with the greatest possible economic opportunity for the U.S."
Chu urged Congress to pass CO2 legislation without worrying about it being perfect: "Once you get it going and start making progress, very clever people start to dream up better solutions. So rather than wait around for a perfect bill that might be delayed for four or five years or forever, get it going."
On smart grids, Chu said: "It will take several decades to be able to get this to [work], and the cost will be very large. Before I took this job I [participated in] a National Academies study called America's Energy Future. The total cost, public and private, that I heard was half a trillion dollars or more."
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