Yes, science is back!  In Obama, we will have a President who appreciates the power of science to understand the world and fix the world, not merely to spy on the world or to blow up the world.  That’s the report from Think Progress:

SCIENCE IS BACK: The choice of Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, is a clear signal from Obama that he intends to restore the role of science in climate policy (Bush’s first Department of Energy (DOE) head, Spencer Abraham, had previously advocated abolishing the department). Chu is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a DOE-funded research institute, where he is on a “mission” to make the lab “the world leader in alternative and renewable energy research, particularly the development of carbon-neutral sources of energy.” He was an early advocate of finding scientific solutions to climate change. As Chu explained at this summer’s National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, the best way to reduce greenhouse emissions is to reduce energy consumption by investing in energy efficiency — policies that are congruent with Obama’s stated goals. Furthermore, given the Bush administration’s history of obstruction at international climate summits, the global community will likely welcome Chu’s selection. As one of 30 members of the Copenhagen Climate Council, Chu is currently part of an effort to push the international community to have the “urgency to establish a global treaty by 2012