THE WALL STREET JOURNAL — Ernest Moniz, a nuclear physicist who has lauded the U.S. natural gas boom, will be the next U.S. Energy Secretary after winning unanimous confirmation from the U.S. Senate Thursday.
Mr. Moniz won bipartisan support in a 97-0 vote and will take over the Department of Energy as it weighs several applications to export U.S. natural gas.
Mr. Moniz spoke positively about the U.S. natural gas boom at a Senate Energy Committee hearing last month, but he didn’t take a firm position on exports. In his previous job as head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Energy Initiative, he led a study that said the U.S. shouldn’t erect barriers to exports and that a global gas market would advance U.S. interests.
There are more than a dozen export applications awaiting the Obama administration’s approval.
Read more at The Wall Street Journal.
