By Morgan Clendaniel

The Nobel Prize-winning scientists who headed the Energy Department during Obama's first term announced today that he would resign in the coming months. Chu came under a lot of Republican fire for the Solyndra bankruptcy (which wasn't actually a big deal).

He also provided over ARPA-E, the innovative part of the DOE that was modeled after DARPA and tasked with coming up with cutting-edge energy solutions and reducing our resource use.

You can read his letter to DOE employees here. A key excerpt:

The test for America's policy makers will be whether they are willing to accept a few failures in exchange for many successes. America's entrepreneurs and innovators who are leaders in global clean energy race understand that not every risk can - or should - be avoided. Michelangelo said, "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark."

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