NEWSROOM

Bi-Partisan Commission to Address Key U.S. Energy Issues

Tuesday, November 26, 2002
 

Expert Group Announces Major Research and Policy Effort

November 26, 2002

 

For more information, contact:
Paul Bledsoe   202-637-0400

 

Responding to growing U.S. energy policy challenges, a bipartisan

group of leaders in the field of energy today announced they have

established a commission to address long-term U.S. energy issues. The 17-member panel—the National Commission on Energy Policy — will address major U.S. energy issues as they affect national security, economic prosperity and environmental health.

The Commission is co-chaired by Harvard Professor John P. Holdren, World Wildlife Fund Chairman and former EPA Administrator William K. Reilly, and Exelon Corporation Chairman and CEO John W. Rowe.

“The Commission is developing a series of policy recommendations to address key energy issues affecting long-term U.S. national security, environmental safety and economic prosperity,” said Reilly, speaking on behalf of the Commission. “The gravity of these challenges requires contributions from many groups and institutions. We believe our work, in concert with that of others, can help lay the groundwork for a more secure energy future for the entire nation.”

The bi-partisan panel includes leaders from the automotive, oil and gas, and electric utility sectors, current and former senior governmental officials, leading academics, representatives from organized labor and the environmental movement, and top technical and policy experts.

“A key feature of our Commission is that it is distinctly bipartisan and truly represents a wide spectrum of views,” Reilly said. “Many people involved in energy policy, both inside and outside of government, are looking for ways to find common ground while meeting long-term economic, security, and environmental goals. We see our work as complementary to, not competitive with, efforts by the Congress and the Administration to address energy challenges. Indeed, early meetings with numerous Administration and Congressional officials have helped to refine and focus our agenda.”

The Commission has also begun meeting with a wide array of energy stakeholders in industry, research and academic institutions, organized labor, consumer and environmental groups, state and local leaders and others, and will continue to conduct such meetings.

The Commission intends to hold a series of public forums on key energy issues beginning in early 2003, and will produce interim studies. However, in order to avoid politicizing its ultimate policy recommendations, the Commission expects to issue its final report only after the 2004 Presidential election.

The Commission is funded principally by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as well as by its funding partners – The Pew Charitable Trusts, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Energy Foundation.

The Commission has an overall budget of approximately $10 million. A significant percentage of its budget will be devoted to research on a range of energy issues, drawing on the very latest outside research and employing advanced analytic tools to examine the interactions among technologies, policies, economic and environmental effects, and security implications.

Issues the Commission will likely address include:

· The continued transition to competitive energy markets;

· Energy choices that will improve our national security;

· Global climate change and other energy-related environmental risks;

· The economic and technical viability of new energy technologies.

“Energy policy’s long time-horizons and established interests make good public policy hard to achieve within the pressure of the political calendar,” Reilly said. “We believe national energy policy can benefit from independent, expert recommendations that take a long-range view. This is particularly true given the range of long-term energy options, and the complexity of the scientific, environmental, diplomatic, military and technological decisions involved in American energy choices.”

The members of the National Commission on Energy Policy are:

John P. Holdren

Co-Chair

Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy, Harvard University

William K. Reilly

Co-Chair

President and CEO of Aqua International Partners, Chairman of the World Wildlife Fund, and former Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

John W. Rowe

Co-Chair

Philip R. Sharp

Congressional Chair

Senior Advisor, Lexecon, Inc.; Senior Policy Advisor, Van Ness Feldman; Former U.S. Representative, Indiana

Marilyn Brown

Director, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program, Oak Ridge National Labs

Ralph Cavanagh

Senior Attorney and Co-Director of Energy Program, Natural Resources Defense Council

Archie W. Dunham

Chairman, ConocoPhillips

Rodney Ellis

State Senator, Texas

Leo Gerard

International President, United Steelworkers of America

F. Henry Habicht

CEO, Global Environment and Technology Foundation, and former Deputy Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency

Paul L. Joskow

Professor of Economics and Director of MIT Center for Energy and

Environmental Policy Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Andrew Lundquist

President, The Lundquist Group, and former Executive Director, National Energy Policy Development, The White House

Mario J. Molina

Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Linda Stuntz

Partner, Stuntz, Davis & Staffier, and former Deputy Secretary of Energy

Susan Tierney

Senior Vice President, Lexecon, Inc., former Assistant Secretary of Energy

James Woolsey

Vice President, Booz, Allen, Hamilton; former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency

Martin B. Zimmerman

Group Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Ford Motor Company

Executive Director

Jason Grumet