Secretary of Energy Steven Chu made clear the Obama administration will be taking a markedly different path to approach global warming today in his first national interview. He took a hard line on global warming, affirming his belief that it’s real, dangerous, and needs to be addressed right now.

“I’m hoping that the American people will wake up,” he said, “I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen.” Foretelling action on his part and that of the Energy Department, he compared the current American state of mind to that of “A family buying an old house and being told by an inspector that it must pay a hefty sum to rewire it or risk an electrical fire that could burn everything down.”

Chu went on to cite specifically the serious droughts being experienced out west due to increasingly diminished snow packs in the Sierra Mountains, painting a grim picture of a potentially farm-less California.

The solution? Chu advocates more clean energy research, infrastructure, a national renewable electricity standard, and a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system. Sounds good to us.

Read more here