Hill Heat

r. Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, will talk about accelerating innovation to help meet our energy and climate goals at a National Press Club luncheon on Monday, November 29.

As United States Secretary of Energy, Chu, is charged with helping implement President Obama’s agenda to invest in clean and renewable energy, end the nation’s addiction to foreign oil and address the global climate crisis.

Steven Chu will say that the clean energy successes of China and other countries represent a “Sputnik Moment” for the United States that requires the nation to focus its attention on clean-tech innovation.

The energy secretary will call for the nation to ramp up efforts to develop and deploy the next generation of energy alternatives to ensure the country is able to compete for what he sees as the jobs of the future. Chu is also expected to use the opportunity to tout several of his agency’s ongoing research efforts, including a stimulus-funded project to develop a cost-competitive plug-in car battery with a single-charge range of 500 miles or more.

Chu was co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997.

Prior to his appointment, Chu was director of DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and professor of physics and molecular and cell biology at the University of California. Previously, he held positions at Stanford University and AT&T Bell Laboratories.

The National Press Club luncheon will begin promptly at 12:30 p.m. and Chu’s remarks will begin at 1:00, followed by a question-and-answer session.

The National Press Club 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor

11/29/2010 at 12:30PM

This event will focus on the impacts to communities of rising sea levels along the coast. An international audience will exchange information about vulnerability assessments, tools, and methodologies that are being used by coastal communities to understand and reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and to sustain their way of life and the ecosystem habitats and services on which they depend.

11/29/2010 at 11:00AM

The 16th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change begins in Cancun, Mexico. webcast

11/29/2010 at 11:00AM

“Report to the President on Accelerating the Pace of Change in Energy Technologies Through an Integrated Federal Energy Policy” addresses one of the greatest challenges facing the United States: how to transform the Nation’s energy system within one to two decades through leadership in energy technology innovation—a challenge with great implications for economic competitiveness, environmental stewardship, and national security.

Speakers

• John P. Holdren – PCAST Co-chair, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Ernest Moniz and Maxine Savitz, PCAST members and Co-chairs of the PCAST Energy Technology Innovation System Working Group
• Robert Simon, Staff Director of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
• David Goldston, Director of Government Affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council and former Chief of Staff for the House Committee on Science

Auditorium of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC

11/29/2010 at 10:00AM

A panel of scientific experts will participate in a national teleconference on Thursday, November 17 to discuss the dramatic developments in climate change during 2010. Reports from leading scientists, record global temperatures, extreme weather events and exonerations of scientists, depicted in a timeline linked here, were largely overshadowed by the BP oil spill and the political debate over climate and energy legislation.

The discussion will feature leading climate scientists including:

• Michael Mann, Ph.D.just returning from the Arctic. Dr. Mann was falsely accused of professional misconduct by climate change deniers and has been completely exonerated by independent panels. He received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Applied Math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. degree in Physics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. He was a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report, and has served as chair for the National Academy of Sciences ‘Frontiers of Science’. He has received the outstanding publication award from NOAA, and in 2002 was selected as one of the 50 leading visionaries in science and technology by Scientific American. He is author of more than 120 peer-reviewed and edited publications, and recently co-authored the book “Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming” with colleague Lee Kump.

• Greg Holland, Ph.D. will be calling in from La Reunion in the South Indian OceanDr. Holland is the Director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and a fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. He has several areas of research interests including hurricanes and tropical meteorology, and unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs). His publications have included major contributions to six textbooks and forecast manuals, together with over 100 research papers in atmospheric sciences and UAVs.

• Mark C. Serreze, Ph.D., Director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Serreze,is also a research associate professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). He studies Arctic climate, and the causes and global implications of climate change in the Arctic. Serreze is well known for his research on the declining sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean. He has has authored more than 90 scientific publications, including an award-winning textbook, The Arctic Climate System, which he co-wrote with former NSIDC director Roger Barry.

To participate in this teleconference call, callers should dial 1.800.434.1335. The conference code is: 529973# Please tell the operator that you are seeking the “2010 Year in Review” conference call.

Note: This call is for media only, and will include a question and answer session for journalists.

11/17/2010 at 01:30PM

Panel I

• Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone, President, National Academy of Sciences
• Dr. Heidi M. Cullen, CEO and Director of Communications, Climate Central
• Dr. Gerald A. Meehl, Senior Scientist, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research
• Dr. Richard Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Panel II

• Dr. Richard B. Alley, Evan Pugh Professor, Department of Geosciences and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, The Pennsylvania State University
• Dr. Richard A. Feely, Senior Scientist, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA
• Dr. Benjamin D. Santer, Atmospheric Scientist, Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Dr. Patrick J. Michaels, Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, Cato Institute

Panel III

• Jim Lopez, Senior Adviser to the Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• William Geer, Director of the Center for Western Lands, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
• Rear Admiral David W. Titley, Senior Adviser to the Deputy Secretary, Oceanographer and Navigator of the U.S. Navy
• Dr. Judith Curry, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology

11/17/2010 at 10:30AM

Witnesses

• Dr. Jeffrey P. Chamberlain, Department Head, Electrochemical Energy Storage & Energy Storage Major Initiative Leader, Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory
• Martha G. VanGeem, Principal Engineer & Group Manager, Building Science and Sustainability, CTL Group
• Daniel Cheifetz, Chief Executive Officer, Indie Energy Systems Company
• Michael Lopez, Director of Facility Operations, Bolingbrook High School
• Joseph Ostafi IV, Regional Leader for the Science and Technology Division, Group Vice President, HOK

2525 Dirksen Federal Courthouse, 219 S. Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois

11/15/2010 at 10:30AM

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to a briefing on black carbon, a component of soot, a leading cause of mortality in the developing world, and a contributor to global climate change. The largest sources of black carbon emissions are diesel engines, residential heating and cooking, and open burning of agricultural lands and forests. Black carbon contributes to climate change in two basic ways: by absorbing sunlight in the atmosphere and, subsequently, by falling from the atmosphere onto snow and ice - causing these normally-reflective surfaces to absorb more heat and melt more quickly. Biomass burned in open fires and crude cooking stoves also leads to extremely high individual exposures to smoke - of which black carbon is a major component—and is a serious health threat for women and children in the developing world. This briefing will provide an overview of how black carbon impacts public health and the climate (and how the effects vary regionally) as well as technologies, current initiatives, and policy opportunities to reduce these emissions from cookstoves, the transportation sector, and forestry and agriculture. Speakers for this event include:

• Ben DeAngelo, Senior Analyst for Climate Change Science and Policy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Co-chair, Task Force on Short-Lived Climate Forcers, Arctic Council
• Conrad Schneider, Advocacy Director, Clean Air Task Force
• Jacob Moss, Senior Advisor, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (and informal technical advisor to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves)

Black carbon is a significant contributor to climate change, and yet it remains in the atmosphere for only days at a time (compared to more than 100 years for carbon dioxide). According to the World Health Organization, indoor air pollution from burning solid fuel is responsible for 1.6 million deaths annually, and is one of the fourth worst overall health risk factors in poor countries. Many measures to reduce black carbon emissions have been called “no regrets” strategies due to their co-benefits for climate change mitigation and improved public health. In addition, some black carbon reduction strategies also reduce ozone precursors and methane, magnifying the health and climate benefits even further.

11/09/2010 at 10:00AM

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is engaged in a series of rule-making proceedings of extraordinary scope and ambition—going well beyond its efforts to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. All major EPA decisions are contentious, but the current flurry of regulatory initiatives raises unusually serious issues of costs and benefits, feasibility, methodology, and agency discretion. This event will begin with a presentation on air-quality trends followed by panel presentations and discussions on current rule-making proceedings and underlying issues of science, economics, and risk assessment.

Agenda

8:15 a.m.

Registration and Breakfast

8:30

Introduction:

• CHRISTOPHER DEMUTH, AEI

8:40

Presentation: Trends in Air Quality—1970, Today, and Tomorrow

• STEVEN F. HAYWARD, AEI

9:00

Panel I: EPA’s Rule-Making Surge

Panelists:

• PAUL R. NOE, American Forest & Paper Association “The Challenge of Boiler MACT and the Cumulative Air Regulatory Burden”
• ARTHUR FRAAS, Resources for the Future “Banking on Permits: A Risky Business”
• JEFFREY R. HOLMSTEAD, Bracewell & Giuliani “The Clean Air Act and the Rule of Law”

Moderator: *KENNETH P. GREEN, AEI

10:30

Break

10:40

Panel II: Science and Economics in EPA Rule-Making

Panelists:

• RICHARD A. BECKER, American Chemistry Council “The Blurred Lines between Science and Policy”
• RICHARD B. BELZER, Regulatory Checkbook and Neutral Source “Empirical Analysis of EPA Compliance with the Information Quality Act”
• JANE LUXTON, Pepper Hamilton LLP “Polarization on Science Issues in EPA Risk Assessment”
• BRIAN F. MANNIX, Buckland Mill Associates “Whose Telescope is Defective? The Role of Discount-Rate Arbitrage in Energy and Climate Policy”

Moderator:

• SUSAN E. DUDLEY, The George Washington University

Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

11/08/2010 at 08:30AM

Witnesses

• William J. Lynn III, Deputy Secretary of Defense
• Ashton B. Carter, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics * General James E. Cartwright, USMC Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

09/28/2010 at 10:00AM