President-elect Barack Obama won't take office until January, but national energy experts are ready to give him their ideas on desirable new energy policies.
Daniel M. Kammen will be the keynote speaker at the University of Colorado at Boulder Energy Initiative's research symposium on Monday, Nov. 17, at the University Memorial Center. Kammen is a professor in the Energy and Resources Group, professor of public policy and professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He also is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at Berkeley.
"Dan Kammen is one of the most foresighted thinkers I know on the topic of our global energy and climate future, " said Gov. Bill Ritter. "Colorado is delighted to host him."
Kammen's speech for the symposium, "Clean Energy Options for the 21st Century: Policy Advice for the New President," will focus on what he says are an "ever-evolving resource of ideas and technologies that are at the disposal of the Obama administration." The keynote address will begin at 8:45 a.m. in the Glenn Miller Ballroom and is free and open to the public.
"Our country has neglected a number of vital energy technologies and market support mechanisms, many of which can play a significant role in efforts addressing local and global environmental issues, as well as contributing to job creation," said Kammen.
One example of the lack of significant support for alternative energy options, according to Kammen, is the relative scarcity of major wind energy companies based in the United States. A number of important innovations in wind energy technologies were developed in the United States, much of it at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, according to Kammen.
"The lack of a technology pipeline in this country has resulted in many missed opportunities," said Kammen. "The next great, clean energy firm could and should be a U.S. firm."
Kammen's speech will be followed by a panel discussion that includes Tom Weimer, minority staff director of the U.S. House's Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Weimer was formerly assistant secretary of the interior for policy, management and budget under Bush administration Interior Secretaries Gale Norton and Dirk Kempthorne.
"Tom Weimer is one of the most knowledgeable people in Washington on climate change issues," said Norton. "From a career spanning two decades with congressional committees and inside executive agencies, Tom can provide valuable insights and informed predictions about policy debates. He knows the players and he knows the issues."
The keynote event accompanies the CU-Boulder Energy Initiative's Annual Energy Research Symposium. Working in partnership with regional federal labs NREL, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the symposium hosts a poster session in which faculty, researchers and scientists display their novel ideas for new energy and related climate change or sustainability research.
The symposium encourages collaboration among participants with related research interests and expertise on CU campuses and at local federal laboratories. Research on all aspects of renewable and low-carbon energy, as well as energy policy and the effects of energy production and use on the environment, will be presented. The symposium will be followed by a seed grant competition, which awards $500,000 to push forward the best new ideas and collaborations for CU-Boulder energy research.
"We have to completely reorient our energy system to one that fosters lasting economic and environmental sustainability," said Carl Koval, EI faculty director. "Unprecedented amounts of low-carbon energy must be developed to meet this challenge. To succeed, we will have to break through technology bottlenecks with pioneering research and novel engineering, work to understand human behavior surrounding energy use, and harness an entrepreneurial mindset to get these technologies into the marketplace as quickly as possible."
The free symposium runs from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. but registration is required for all events except the keynote address. Visit and click "research symposium" for more information.