Energy Future Coalition: Jan. 22

As a reminder, the next meeting of the Steering Committee will be on Friday, January 22. We will meet as usual from 10 am to noon in the 12th floor board room at our offices, 1750 Pennsylvania Ave., NW. For our agenda, we thought it would be welcome to follow up on the discussion we had at our December meeting about nuclear energy, particularly in a carbon-constrained future. For example, small modular reactors have been discussed for years – what are their prospects? Is there a path to market for new technologies, or will the US market focus solely on life extension? We are pleased to have two experts with us to frame our conversation: · John Kotek is the Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at DOE. His Office is responsible for conducting research on current and future nuclear energy systems, maintaining the government’s nuclear energy research infrastructure, and establishing a path forward for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste management program. From 2010-2012, John served as Staff Director to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, which recommended a new strategy for managing nuclear waste in the United States. Before joining DOE in July 2003, he worked for Argonne National Laboratory as the Generation IV and Nuclear-Hydrogen Programs Manager, participating in an international effort to evaluate and develop the next generation of nuclear energy systems. In 2002, as the American Nuclear Society’s Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Fellow, John worked for Sen. Jeff Bingaman. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland. · Jeff Baran has served since October 2014 as a Commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); his term ends June 30, 2018. He came to the NRC after 11 years in the House, most recently as Democratic Staff Director for Energy and Environment on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Prior to his work on Capitol Hill, he served as a law clerk for Judge Lesley Wells of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Jeff earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in political science from Ohio University and holds a law degree from Harvard Law School. For background on this topic, I recommend two items as a point-counterpoint: First, the letter written last month by four distinguished climate scientists (James Hansen, Kerry Emanuel, Ken Caldeira and Tom Wigley) – “Nuclear power paves the only viable path forward on climate change.” It is posted here<http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/03/nuclear-power-paves-the-only-viable-path-forward-on-climate-change>. Second, Joe Romm, a Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Founding Editor of the blog Climate Progress, posted a rebuttal last week, “Why James Hansen Is Wrong About Nuclear Power.” It is posted here<http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/01/07/3736243/nuclear-power-climate-change/>. Joe has agreed to be with us and participate in our discussion. At our December meeting, Steering Committee members also suggested that we refresh our membership, as we have done before at this time of year. We are delighted to report that Jerry Taylor and Bob Perciasepe – familiar figures to us from past sessions – have agreed to join our ranks: · Jerry Taylor is the founder and president of the Niskanen Center<https://niskanencenter.org/>, a libertarian think tank established in 2014 that works to change public policy through direct engagement in the policymaking process: developing and promoting proposals to legislative and executive branch policymakers, building coalitions to facilitate joint action, and marshaling the most convincing arguments in support of this agenda. Jerry has participated with us to discuss “The Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax.” Previously, he spent 23 years at the Cato Institute, where he served as director of natural resource studies, assistant editor of Regulation magazine, senior fellow, and then vice president. · Bob Perciasepe is President of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions<http://www.c2es.org/> (previously the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, now better known as C2ES), an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to advance strong policy and action to address our climate and energy challenges. Bob has been an environmental policy leader in and outside government for more than 30 years, most recently as Deputy Administrator of EPA from 2009 to 2014. He is a respected expert on environmental stewardship, natural resource management, and public policy, and has built a reputation for bringing stakeholders together to solve issues. Our December meeting featured a compelling presentation by Rich Thau of Presentation Testing on “What Liberals Should Say – and Not Say – to Conservatives about Climate,” a look at what happened at COP 21 (the Paris climate talks), and a robust discussion about the Energy Future Coalition’s agenda for 2016. Some notes are attached, if you were unable to attend. (As always, these notes are not verbatim and not for distribution or attribution, please.) Our next two meetings of 2016 are as follows: Tuesday, February 23 Tuesday, March 29 Again, we hope you can join us on Friday, Jan. 22 – from 10 am to noon in the 12th floor board room at our offices, 1750 Pennsylvania Ave., NW. As always, we welcome RSVPs to Caitlin Shubick at cshubick@energyfuturecoalition.org<mailto:cshubick@energyfuturecoalition.org> or by phone at (202) 778-1638. With best regards, Reid * * * * * Reid Detchon Executive Director Energy Future Coalition 1750 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006 Phone: (202) 419-3220 (direct) Or: (202) 463-8744 Fax: (202) 887-9021 www.energyfuturecoalition.org<http://www.energyfuturecoalition.org>