About the Commission

Increasing global competition for energy resources, growing concern over global climate change, questions about the long-term stability of the Middle Eastern energy supplies and the tremendous progress in new energy technologies all suggest a rapidly changing landscape of energy needs, vulnerabilities, and opportunities.

Responding to these issues, a bipartisan group of 20 of the nation’s leading energy experts – representing the highest ranks of industry, government, academia, labor, consumer and environmental protection – joined together to form the National Commission on Energy Policy. In December 2004, after more than two years of research and debate, the Commission released its long-term energy strategy, Ending the Energy Stalemate: A Bipartisan Strategy to Meet America’s Energy Challenges. This consensus plan aims to enhance American national security, strengthen the U.S. economy, and protect the global environment and public health.

Since the report’s release, the Commission has advocated in support of its recommendations to Congress, the Administration, industry, the States, and other leading energy policymakers and stakeholders. This work includes testifying before Congress, conducting new research, holding forums and workshops and bringing together key stakeholders.

As it moves forward, the Commission will focus, in particular, on three critical long-term issues: oil security, climate change, and energy infrastructure adequacy and siting.

The Commission will continue to identify and address the political and analytical barriers that have thwarted previous efforts at energy policy reform and conduct extensive outreach to government, business, NGO and other communities. By taking a bipartisan approach, and seeking to connect the expertise and objectivity of scientific research with political realities, the Commission seeks both to build on and distinguish itself from past energy policy efforts.

The Commission is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and its partners.