Energy Secretary Steven Chu says for the sake of our children and grandchildren, the United States “must decrease our dependence on oil, use energy in the most efficient ways possible, and lower our carbon emissions.”

Chu told the House Science and Technology Committee this week that in order to make that happen, the government needs to increase funding and “support transformational technology research to bring a range of clean energy technologies to the point where the private sector can pick them up.”

Top on Chu’s list of those technologies is “gasoline and diesel-like biofuels generated from lumber waste, crop wastes, solid waste, and non-food crops.” He also prioritized “large scale energy storage systems so that variable renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power can become base-load power generators” on his wish list.

This was the first Cabinet-level witness for the Committee, and the Secretary’s first appearance at a House panel.