Energy nominee favors all-of-the-above approach

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's choice to lead the Energy Department advocates an all-of-the-above approach to energy and favors natural gas as a "bridge fuel" to help the country develop clean energy.

Ernest Moniz, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, leads the MIT Energy Initiative, a research group that gets funding from BP, Chevron and other oil industry heavyweights for academic work aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. A former energy undersecretary, Moniz has advised Obama on energy topics, including how to handle the country's nuclear waste and the natural gas produced by the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing.

Moniz, 68, whose specialty is nuclear physics, has drawn fire from some environmental groups for his views on natural gas, especially that produced from shale, a gas-rich underground rock formation. The gas is freed through a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which large volumes of water, plus sand and chemicals, are injected to break the rock apart.

At a forum last year at the University of Texas, Moniz said natural gas, which emits fewer greenhouse gases than oil or coal, is likely to be part of the nation's energy solution for years to come.

As a nation, the U.S. "should take advantage of the time to innovate and bring down the cost of renewables" such as wind and solar, Moniz said. "The worst thing would be to get time and not use it."

Those and other comments have made some environmental groups wary of Moniz, who also has supported development of nuclear power, along with renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.