The New York Times has published a report on Steven Chu's meddling in the BP spill recovery efforts. Here are the main points.

 A few weeks later, he overruled some BP officials and ordered the company to stop the "top kill" effort, citing "very, very grave concerns" that it could backfire. (snip)

In an interview Thursday, Dr. Chu said that if he had understood geology and well technology better in the early days after the April 20 blowout, he might have urged a faster attempt at the top kill, which involved shooting mud and other gunk to clog up the damaged blowout preventer atop the gushing well. The delay, he said, might have allowed pressure to increase in the well, rendering the attempt fruitless when it was tried at the end of May. (snip)

He is not formally part of the chain of command in the spill response, but carries the authority of Mr. Obama as well as his own considerable intellectual heft.

Ludicrous that he (Obama) keeps saying Chu has a Nobel prize. I'll barf if he does it one more time. A lot of meritocracy, a lot of blue ribbon talk.