February 23, 2009
Related Links: Background Information, Vision Statment, Event Videos, Press Conference, Event Summary, Policy Report
Download Pictures on Flickr (Credit: Ralph Alswang of the Center for American Progress)
Major leaders from government, business, labor and advocacy organizations gathered in Washington DC on February 23rd 2009 for a roundtable discussion on four key recommendations to reform U.S. energy policy. The principles they discussed would boost new renewable energy production, transmission and distribution, and reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. The leaders who participated in the discussion included President William Jefferson Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), energy executive T. Boone Pickens, and Center for American Progress Action Fund President John Podesta among other luminaries. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was the Honorary Chair, and the roundtable discussion was moderated by former US Senator Timothy Wirth.
The National Clean Energy Project: Building the New Economy Forum built upon the foundation laid at the “National Clean Energy Summit,” sponsored by Senator Reid, CAPAF, the University of Nevada Las Vegas in August 2008. The participants in the summit concluded that inadequate access to transmission was one of the most significant barriers to widespread development of renewable energy, and February’s event was planned to hone in on this issue specifically.
The discussion focused on guiding the transformation of our nation’s energy policies with particular attention to modernizing and expanding the electricity grid, integrating energy efficiency and distributed generation into operation, rapidly increasing transmission capacity for renewable energy, and reducing our nation’s dependence on foreign oil by examining short- and long-term solutions to replace foreign oil with domestic resources to fuel vehicles and trucks, including natural gas.
This was followed by a roundtable discussion among the invited participants moderated by Mr. Wirth. The discussion focused on guiding the transformation of our nation’s energy policies with particular attention on modernizing the electricity grid, integrating energy efficiency and distributed generation into its operation and regulation, rapidly increasing transmission capacity for renewable energy, and reducing our nation’s dependence on foreign oil through natural gas, plug-in hybrids, and batteries in the transportation and distribution system.
Transcript (pdf)
Event Writeup and Tim Wirth’s Event Overview Video (pdf)
Full List of Participants
• Secretary of Energy Steven Chu
• Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
• Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
• House Energy Independence and Global Warming Select Committee Chair Ed Markey (D-MA)
• Senate Energy and Water Subcommittee Chairman, Appropriations Committee Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Acting Chairman Jon Wellinghoff
• Former Governor George Pataki (R-NY)
• Owens-Corning CEO Michael Thaman
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors and former CEO Lee Scott
• American Electric Power President and CEO Mike Morris
• Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope
• Riverkeeper Alliance Chief Prosecuting Attorney Robert Kennedy, Jr.
• American Wind Energy Association CEO Denise Bode
• National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners President Fred Butler
• Green for All Founder and President Van Jones
• Service Employees International Unions President Andy Stern
• U.S. Green Building Council President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi
• Sea Change Foundation President Nat Simons
• Remarks by Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid – Vision
• Remarks by T. Boone Pickens – Dependence on Oil
• Remarks by John Podesta – Challenge: Infrastructure
Related Links: Background Information, Vision Statment, Event Videos, Press Conference, Event Summary, Policy Report
Tags: Add new tag, Al Gore, Building the New Economy, CAP Action, CAPAF, Center for American Progress Action Fund, John Podesta, Ken Salazar, Nancy Pelosi, National Clean Energy Project, NCEP, Steven Chu, T. Boone Pickens, Tim Wirth
