This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.

February 06, 2013

Letter from Secretary Steven Chu to Energy Department Employees Announces His Decision Not to Serve a Second Term

In a letter to Energy Department employees on February 1, Energy Secretary Steven Chu highlighted the tremendous progress of the last four years and announced his decision to not serve a second term as Secretary. Text of the letter is below.

Dear Colleagues:

Serving the country as Secretary of Energy, and working alongside such an extraordinary team of people at the Department, has been the greatest privilege of my life. While the job has had many challenges, it has been an exciting time for the Department, the country, and for me personally.

I’ve always been inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, who articulated his Dream of an America where people are judged not by skin color but “by the content of their character.” In the scientific world, people are judged by the content of their ideas. Advances are made with new insights, but the final arbitrator of any point of view are experiments that seek the unbiased truth, not information cherry picked to support a particular point of view. The power of our work is derived from this foundation.

For the rest of Secretary Chu's letter, see the Energy Blog.