Reply To: 600 kmph MonoRail Ship Ferry VLCC Fare $1/100 km

[Rezwan]

Ah, an update on ARPA_E – seems Chu is frustrated with the slow going.

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/03/arpae-doe-ropea.html

March 17 article says:

ARPA-E: DOE Rope-a-Dope Ties Up Chu’s Efforts on Energy Research

Energy Secretary Steven Chu wants to open the doors as soon as possible on a new agency within the Department of Energy (DOE) that’s designed to identify and fund what he calls “game-changing” research. But he says DOE bureaucrats are foiling his best efforts to move ahead quickly with the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, for which Congress has allocated a whopping $415 million between stimulus funding and appropriations.

“The task force that I assembled to look at the issue told me that it would take a year to get it up and running,” Chu told the House Science and Technology Committee this morning during a hearing to discuss federal energy policy. “I was dismayed by their answer, and I asked them to take a closer look and get back to me. I’m still waiting.”