The U.S. Department of Energy stepped up its social media presence today by launching a new blog, Facebook and Twitter pages.

While this is not the beginning of DOE's social media strategy -- the Department already has YouTube and Flickr pages, and Secretary Steven Chu has a personal Facebook page -- DOE hopes that the move to Facebook and Twitter today will give the Department more opportunities to discursively engage the public on the critical energy issues facing the U.S. today.

Chu writes in the opening blog post of DOE's Energy Blog:

"While the act of starting a blog is hardly novel, it is a first for us and part of our commitment to achieving the level of transparency, engagement, and accessibility that you should expect from your government."

The federal government under the Obama administration has bolstered its social media presence across the different department and agencies, but today's move from DOE is evidence that some departments are moving slower than others.