Top Industry, NGO, and Political Leaders from Both Parties Join Project to Improve Long-Term US Energy Policy

July 27, 2011

Washington, DC- The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) Energy Project today announced its full membership, including leading energy industry CEOs, top NGO and labor officials, and senior former political figures from both major parties.

“We are grateful to our fellow Project Members for their willingness to join us in developing major recommendations for the long-term future of US energy policy,” said Energy Project Co-Chairs former Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Trent Lott (R-MS). “It is critical that the views of top leaders from industry, labor, NGO’s and former officials from both parties be represented as we help chart a course for America’s energy future.”

The BPC Energy Project will focus on key energy security, economic, technological and environmental issues, including an effort to develop detailed metrics, measures and goals for US energy policy. The group will release white papers, interim products from subsets of the full membership in the form of Task Force reports, and other research. Early in 2013, the Project will release a more comprehensive set of recommendations for long-term US energy policy.

“We face a new era of energy security challenges that in my view will require new policies, reformed government structures and the imposition of long overdue accountability to achieve specific goals,” said General James L. Jones (ret.), former National Security Adviser to President Obama and Energy Security Chair of the Project. “I look forward to working with this distinguished group of experts toward these goals.”

“The participation of key leaders from major energy companies combined with top experts from government, NGO’s and labor indicates an opportunity to make major policy advances that can gain traction in Congress, the Executive, and in industry itself,” said William K. Reilly, former EPA Administrator and Co-Chair of the Presidential National Oil Spill Commission, who serves as Energy and Environment Chair of the BPC Energy Project.

Members of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Energy Project are:

Co-Chairmen:

Former Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Former Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

Energy Security Chair:

General James L. Jones (USMC-ret.), former U.S. National Security Advisor; President and CEO, Jones Group International

Energy and Environment Chair:

William K. Reilly, former U.S. EPA Administrator

• Ralph Cavanagh, Energy Program Director, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
• Clarence Cazalot, Chairman, President and CEO, Marathon Oil Corporation
• William M. Colton, Vice President, Corporate Strategic Planning, Exxon Mobil Corporation
• David Cote, Chairman and CEO, Honeywell International, Inc
• Mark Gerencser, Executive Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton
• James T. Hackett, Executive Chairman and Former CEO, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
• Edwin D. Hill, International President, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
• William A. Von Hoene, Jr., Executive Vice President, Finance and Legal, Exelon Corporation
• Colette Honorable, Chairman, Arkansas Public Service Commission
• Thomas O. Hunter, Former President and Lab Director, Sandia National Laboratories
• Matt Rose, Chairman and CEO, BNSF Railway Company
• Richard Schmalensee, Ph.D., Economist, Professor of Applied Economics & Dean Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Susan Story, President and CEO, Southern Company Services, Inc.
• Susan Tierney, Ph.D., Managing Principal, Analysis Group; Former Assistant Secretary for Policy, U.S. Department of Energy

In announcing the formation of the BPC Energy Project in April of this year, Dorgan, Lott, Jones and Reilly released an “Open Letter to the American People and America’s Leaders: A New Era for U.S. Energy Security.”

The group also released a BPC Staff Background Paper “Energy Security: Goals, Metrics and Accountability.”

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Energy Project