The
indignities are piling up for Steven Chu, the Nobel laureate Secretary
of Energy whom environmentalists applauded as one of Obama’s best
cabinet picks. His security detail won’t let the lifelong cyclist bike to work. And on Earth Day, he fielded questions like this one (via Talking Points Memo)
during a House hearing on the proposed climate bill. Texas
representative Joe Barton asked Chu where oil comes from, and the
Energy Secretary delved into plate tectonics. Barton boasted afterward
that he had "baffled" Chu.

I
had a webcast of this hearing streaming in the background, and my ears
perked up when I heard this exchange about gas prices between Chu and
Florida Republican Cliff Stearns (starts at the 32:30 mark):

Stearns
to Chu: Last September you made a statement that somehow we have to
boost the price of gasoline to the levels of Europe, which at the time
exceeded $8 per gallon. As Secretary of Energy would you speak for or
against any measures to raise the price of gasoline?

Chu:
The Secretary of Energy, especially now in today’s economic climate,
would be completely unwise to want to increase the price of gasoline.
We’re looking forward to reducing the cost of transportation in the
American family. This is done by encouraging more fuel efficient cars.
This is done by developing alternative forms of fuel like biofuels that
can lead to a separate source, an independent source of transportation
fuel.

Stearns: You can’t honestly believe that you want the American people to pay for gasoline at the prices the level in Europe.

Chu: No we don’t.

Stearns:
Your statement that gas prices ought to rise to the level of Europe,
doesn’t that sound a little bit silly, in retrospect, for you to say
that?

Chu: Yes.

Chu’s tongue may be tied for political reasons, but holding gas prices — and the gas tax — steady is going to make any push for transit a whole lot tougher.