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Energy Analysis Forum 2007 (Nov. 27-28)
"Analytic Insights into Carbon Policy Design and the Implications for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy"
The following experts spoke during the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's fifth Energy Analysis Forum in Golden, Colorado, on November 27-28, 2007.
Doug Arent, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Doug Arent is director of the Strategic Energy Analysis and Applications Center (SEAAC) with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He specializes in strategic planning and financial analysis competencies; clean energy technologies and energy and water issues; and international and governmental policies. In addition to his NREL responsibilities, Arent is a member of the U.S. Government Review Panel for the IPCC Reports on Climate Change and is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Arent is on the Advisory Board of E+Co, a public-purpose investment company that supports sustainable development across the globe. He serves on the Chancellor's Committee on Energy, Environment and Sustainability Carbon Neutrality Group, and on the Advisory Board of the Energy and Environmental Security Institute, University of Colorado. Arent was the chair of the Quantitative Work Group in support of the Clean and Diversified Energy Advisory Council of the Western Governors' Association. Prior to coming to NREL, he was a management consultant to clean energy companies, providing strategy, development, and market counsel. Previous positions held include director of strategic marketing and business development at Network Photonics, director of Media Gateway Products and strategic planning manager at Lucent Technologies (now Avaya), and vice president of business development for Amonix Inc. Arent has a Ph.D. from Princeton University, an MBA from Regis University, and a bachelor's of science from Harvey Mudd College in California.
Ron Binz, Colorado Public Utilities Commission
Ron Binz was appointed chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) by Governor Bill Ritter Jr. in January 2007. Prior to his appointment, Binz was president of Public Policy Consulting, specializing in policy and regulatory issues in the telecommunications and energy industries. His clients include consumer groups, state agencies, telecommunications carriers, and business associations. Binz also served until 2003 as president of the Competition Policy Institute (CPI), based in Washington, D.C. CPI was a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing competition to telecommunications and energy markets in ways that benefit consumers. For 11 years, until 1995, Binz also directed the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel, the state's utility consumer advocate. He was previously president of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) and chaired the group's Telecommunications Committee. Binz served as the co-chair of the North American Numbering Council, which advises the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on telephone numbering policies. He is a member of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group and also served on the Network Reliability Council to the FCC. Binz received a B.A. in philosophy from St. Louis University in 1971 and an M.A. in mathematics from the University of Colorado in 1977. He also completed course work for a master's in economics from the University of Colorado.
Lori Bird, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Lori Bird is a senior energy analyst with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, specializing in the area of renewable energy markets and policy. She has co-authored a number of publications pertaining to green power and renewable energy certificate (REC) markets, utility green pricing programs, and renewable portfolio standards. Her work has appeared in academic and trade journals such as Energy Policy, Renewable Energy World, and Corporate Environmental Strategy. She maintains the Green Power Network, a Web-based clearinghouse of information on green power products and consumer issues. Before joining NREL, Bird worked for the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) in Denver, and Hagler Bailly Consulting in Boulder, Colorado. She has a master's degree in environmental studies from Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Elizabeth Brown, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Elizabeth Brown, who joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in 2005, specializes in energy efficiency and renewable energy policy issues in both the electric and transportation sectors. Her transportation focus is primarily on alternative fuel infrastructure development and evaluation of demand management and reduction policies, including programs for cities and states. Prior to joining NREL, she worked at American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) on efficiency issues including evaluation of corporate average fuel economy (CAFÉ) standards, increasing renewable fuels use in fleet vehicles, and demand-side management. Brown has a master's in environmental policy and science from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor's in environmental science from Boston University.
Richard Cowart, Regulatory Assistance Project
Richard Cowart is a director of the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), a nonprofit institute that has advised governments in more than 40 U.S. states and 16 other nations on energy and environmental policy issues. Cowart served as commissioner and chair of the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) for 13 years with three governors (1986-1999). He was elected president of the New England Conference of Public Utility Commissioners, and chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Committee on Energy Resources and the Environment. For the past three years, he has been involved in the design of greenhouse gas (GHG)-focused strategies for the power and natural gas sectors as a technical and policy adviser to each of the state and regional cap-and-trade initiatives launched in the United States to date: the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the Oregon Carbon Allocation Task Force, the California PUC and California Energy Commission's dockets to implement AB32, and the Western Climate Initiative. He has also worked with officials at the national, provincial, and local levels in China through the China Sustainable Energy Project. Before his appointment to the Vermont PSB, Cowart was assistant professor and director of the program in Planning and Law at the University of California, Berkeley (1980-85), and executive officer and general counsel of the Vermont Environmental Board (1978-80). He received his bachelor's from Davidson College, and the J.D. and Master of City Planning degrees with honors from the University of California, Berkeley.
Howard Gruenspecht, Energy Information Administration
Howard Gruenspecht has been deputy administrator of the Energy Information Administration (EIA) since March 2003. During the past 25 years, Gruenspecht has worked extensively on electricity policy issues, including restructuring and reliability, regulations affecting motor fuels and vehicles, energy-related environmental issues, and economy-wide energy modeling. Before joining EIA, he was a resident scholar at Resources for the Future. From 1993 to 2000, Gruenspecht served as director of Economic, Electricity and Natural Gas Analysis in the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Policy. He originally came to DOE in 1991 as deputy assistant secretary for Economic and Environmental Policy. His accomplishments as a career senior executive at DOE have been recognized with three Presidential Rank Awards. Prior to his service at DOE, Gruenspecht was senior staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisers (1989-1991), with primary responsibilities in the areas of environment, energy, regulation, and international trade. His other professional experience includes service as a faculty member at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie-Mellon University (1981-1988), economic adviser to the chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission (1988-1989), and assistant director, Economics and Business, on the White House Domestic Policy Staff (1978-1979). Gruenspecht received his bachelor's from McGill University in 1975 and his Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1982.
Joe Kruger, National Commission on Energy Policy
Joe Kruger is policy director at the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan group of energy experts from industry, government, labor, academia, and environmental and consumer groups. Previously, he was a visiting scholar at Resources for the Future (RFF), where his research focused on the evaluation of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and other cap-and-trade programs. From 1986-2003, he held several staff and management positions at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Most recently, he managed a branch within EPA's Clean Air Markets Division that was responsible for technical and policy analysis of greenhouse gas trading and inventory issues. Prior to that position, he led a group responsible for the initial economic and environmental assessment of the landmark sulfur dioxide trading program. Kruger is the author of more than two dozen publications on emissions trading or climate policy and was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (Working Group III). From 2004-2005, he was a member of the Resource Panel for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). He has a master's degree in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and an A.B. in government and economics from Cornell University.
Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Todd Litman is founder and executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transport problems. His work helps to expand the range of impacts and options considered in transportation decision-making, improve evaluation methods, and make specialized technical concepts accessible to a larger audience. His research is used worldwide in transport planning and policy analysis.
John McKinsey, Stoel Rives
John McKinsey represents energy and industrial clients at Stoel Rives. He serves as lead counsel for the siting of major industrial development projects in California. Over the course of his career, McKinsey has completed more than $2 billion in plant infrastructure projects. In addition, he provides extensive leadership and guidance in the areas of compliance and regulatory matters involving products, facilities, and operations. McKinsey has represented clients before numerous regulatory agencies including the California Energy Commission, California Air Resources Board, California Department of Fish and Game, State Lands Commission, United States Department of Fish and Wildlife, the California Coastal Commission, and numerous regional governmental agencies including air quality districts, water boards, cities, and counties. He has extensive experience in the regulation of air quality, public health, marine and aquatic biology, environmental justice, visual impacts and electrical power transmission, interconnection, and congestion. McKinsey also gained significant engineering and applied science knowledge and skills while serving in the United States Navy on submarines as a nuclear power plant operator and supervisor and leading electrician. McKinsey is a member of the California Bar Association (environmental and business sections) and has been on the Business Law Faculty of California State University in Sacramento since 2000. He graduated with his B.A. in economics from California State University in 1996.
Marc Melaina, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Marc Melaina is a senior engineer with the Hydrogen Technologies and Systems Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). His research addresses early hydrogen infrastructure development dynamics. Before coming to NREL, he worked as a research track director at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis. Melaina completed his Ph.D. through the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. His work experience includes consulting for Argonne National Laboratory, an internship at the National Transportation Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and teaching undergraduate energy courses at the Residential College at the University of Michigan. He has a master's in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's in physics from the University of Utah.
Karl Michael, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
Karl S. Michael is program manager for the Energy Analysis Program at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) in Albany, New York. In this capacity, he coordinates energy, environmental, and economic modeling and forecasting activities related to energy policy and planning in New York. For the past three years, Michael has led the energy modeling for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a consortium of northeastern and mid-Atlantic states, initiated by New York to develop a model rule for a regional cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions from the electricity-generation sector. He also led New York's energy modeling efforts to support the governor's Greenhouse Gas Task Force, the Acid Deposition Reduction Program (ADRP), the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), and the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR). Michael has more than 20 years' experience in modeling and analysis of energy planning issues in both the public and private sectors. Prior to joining NYSERDA in 1995, Michael was an energy analyst with the New York State Energy Office, and an economic analyst with Orange and Rockland Utilities Inc. of Pearl River, New York. Michael holds a master's in finance from the University of New Haven, West Haven, Connecticut; and a bachelor's in economics from the University of the State of New York, Albany, New York.
Monisha Shah, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Monisha Shah is a project leader with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Part of the International and Environmental Studies staff since December 2005, she has provided management and technical assistance to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Integrated Environmental Strategies (IES) program. She is now the NREL lead for the IES program, which aims to build capacity in developing countries on quantifying the co-benefits of policy measures that reduce both local and global emissions. Prior to coming to NREL, she was a research associate at The Brattle Group where she worked on economic analysis for energy litigation cases, focusing on electricity market structure and antitrust cases for energy and the airlines industries. Shah first came to Washington, D.C., to help develop an international multiregion MARKAL model for the Energy Information Administration. There she also worked on the STEO model and helped design and run energy statistics and modeling workshops in South Asia in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Shah has a master's in environmental engineering, focusing on systems analysis for public decision making at Johns Hopkins University, and a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and economics from University of Iowa.
John Sheehan, LiveFuels Inc.
John Sheehan recently joined LiveFuels Inc. as vice president of Strategy and Sustainable Development, where he is helping to forge a path to commercial production of biofuels from algae. From 1991 to 2007, he served as an analyst and project manager at the U.S. DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). At NREL, Sheehan led research on the production and use of biodiesel and ethanol. From 1993 to 1998, he was the project manager for DOE's Biodiesel from Algae Program. Sheehan is the lead author of the 1998 close-out report that summarized the 20-plus years of R&D accomplishments of the algae program. Sheehan has authored groundbreaking life-cycle assessment studies related to biodiesel and ethanol technology. From 2002 to 2007, he also led strategic planning and analysis activities for the Department of Energy's Biomass Program and, more broadly, for the entire program portfolio in DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Prior to NREL, Sheehan worked as a biochemical engineer at W.R. Grace and Company, and Merck Pharmaceutical. He has bachelor's and master's degrees in biochemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and Lehigh University.
Eric Smith, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Eric Smith is with the Economic Analysis Branch in the Climate Change Division at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where he's worked since 2000. Smith has conducted graduate work at the University of Denver in the Graduate School of International Studies and received his bachelor's degree in physics from Harvey Mudd.
Heidi VanGenderen, Colorado Office of the Governor
Heidi VanGenderen serves as senior adviser on Climate Change and Energy in the Colorado Governor's Office. Appointed to the position in May 2007, VanGenderen helps coordinate policy, programmatic, and executive action addressing climate change and Governor Bill Ritter Jr.'s commitment to bringing forward a new energy economy for the state. These efforts include effective coordination with communities throughout the state, as well as on a regional, national, and international level. The governor will issue a preliminary Climate Action Plan in the fourth quarter of 2007, which will have been informed, in part, by a series of stakeholder roundtables held in early fall 2007. Prior to her current position, VanGenderen was senior associate to the Wirth Chair in Environmental and Community Development Policy at the University of Colorado where she organized, wrote, and spoke about issues relating to sustainable development. The Chair's mission is to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of public policy as it relates to sustainability. As primary staff to the Energy Program of the Chair, VanGenderen focused on energy and climate policy during much of her tenure. She also served as deputy director of the Presidential Climate Action Project, an effort to present a bold and decisive agenda on climate change and the related issues of energy and national security to the country's next president. She has worked for more than 20 years on natural resource issues and in politics, with work experience including service to the United Nations Environment Programme and serving as Congressional staff. She is a graduate of Carleton College and is a third-generation Colorado native who has also lived in Washington, D.C.; Boston; and Chicago.
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