Purpose
The Conference on Bipartisan Energy Policy was organized to develop a systems approach to national policy-making that would apply the nation's best science-based decision-making tools to the evaluation of policy options. A group of leading universities and national laboratories worked with the Howard Baker Forum to investigate and analyze how we can improve the way energy policy is made.
Background
In 2008, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy joined forces with national laboratories and other research universities to establish a program that examined the process of decision-making and use of analytical policy tools as they apply to energy and climate change. In 2009, the Centers hosted a roundtable and follow-on workshop where highly distinguished former executive branch and congressional officials, along with experts from the national laboratories, academic institutions, nongovernmental groups and industry explored ways to establish an open and transparent process for the formulation of energy and climate policy. The conferees concluded that the U.S. government could benefit from a program that applies systems thinking models with broad stakeholder input to analyze, evaluate and monitor energy and climate policy options. The computational tools and modeling capabilities necessary to provide such analysis, although currently dispersed across a number of public and private institutions, are available in the United States. Recognizing these realities, the conferees organized a final working group to determine how these resources might be aggregated and mobilized to improve the policy-making process by employing systems thinking.
Conference Members
The sponsoring and contributing members of the Conference included representatives and experts from the national laboratories and leading research universities. The participating national laboratories, known for their computational expertise and capabilities, are Sandia and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. Among the research universities represented are a number of experts from institutions that have established records in energy systems related research and modeling. The Conference task force members were:
- Wade Adams- R.E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology, Rice University
- Massoud Amin- Technological Leadership Institute, University of Minnesota
- Timothy Anderson- Director of Florida Energy Systems Consortium, University of Florida
- Dawn Bonnell- Director of Nano-Bio Interface Center, University of Pennsylvania
- Nancy Brune- Principal Member of Technical Staff, Sandia National Laboratories
- Scott L. Campbell- The Howard Baker Forum, Washington, D.C.
- Ventatesh Narayanamurti- Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
- David Rosowsky- School of Engineering, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Douglas Rotman- Energy & Environmental Security Program, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Arnold Vedlitz- The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University
The program allowed the Conference members to develop a comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of the opportunities and challenges faced by energy policymakers and provided valuable research and analysis on how the government might improve energy policy making and avoid unintended consequences in future energy legislation that by its nature impacts many sectors of the economy and society.
The research and analysis performed by the Conference members will be incorporated in to Howard baker forum White paper to be published after the 2011 federal elections.
Contact
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