Recent Events
January 2012
Arnetta McRae, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Association of Blacks in Energy, spoke at Women In Government’s 18th Annual State Directors’ Conference. Over the course of her career in utilities regulation, Ms. McRae has served in a number of capacities at regional and national levels. From 1996 to 2011, McRae served on the Delaware Public Service Commission assuming the position of Chair in July 2001. Previously, she was employed for 18 years as counsel with the DuPont Company, where she provided legal services for domestic and international business units. Her presentation provided an overview of diversified energy portfolios in the states and highlight key topics with a focus on green energy. To learn more, please view her presentation here.
August 2011
At Women In Government's 13th Annual Eastern Regional Conference Greg Wilkinson spoke about how new technologies today are able to recover the energy contained in plastics, packaging, and other materials. Plastics have a high energy content that can be converted to electricity, synthetic gas, fuels, and recycled feedstocks for new plastics and other products of chemistry. Greg Wilkinson serves as the Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, the national voice of the plastics value chain in Canada. Mr. Wilkinson is also the Founder and President of Third Oak Associates Inc., a Toronto-based consultancy focused on strategy, communication, and advocacy for the plastics and chemistry sectors. In Mr. Wilkinson’s twenty-year career he has been responsible for: government, media, and community relations, as well as corporate and marketing communications; had roles in sales, marketing, and logistics with NOVA Chemicals; and earlier in his career he worked with a Canadian railway and in the oil and gas industry in Alberta. Mr. Wilkinson discussed how the shelf life of a cucumber can be increased from 3 days to 14 day when it is wrapped in less than one gram of plastic, eliminating an incredible amount of waste. Waste can be divided into three large groups; waste, recycled, and waste that is transformed into energy. He discussed how plastics can become a part of waste that is transformed into energy. For more information, please see his presentation here.
Also featured at the 13th Annual Eastern Regional Conference was Senator Judith Schwank. Her presentation discussed the connection between agriculture and economic development, especially in the use of sustainable farming and environmental protection through sustainable water and land use. It also provided ideas on how legislators can learn more about, and potentially support, similar programs and policies in their states. Senator Judith Schwank serves the 11th Senatorial District of the Pennsylvania State Legislature. She worked as a Berks County horticultural agent for Penn State Cooperative Extension and established the Master Gardener Program. She became director of the Berks County Cooperative Extension Program in 1991 and was elected as the first female Berks County Commissioner in 2000. She was also the President of 10,000 Friends, where Senator Schwank under her leadership the non-profit agency developed policies and actions to revitalize and sustain Pennsylvania’s social and economic climate in order to encourage responsible land use, sustainable development, and promote agricultural heritage. Most recently Senator Schwank served as the Dean of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at Delaware Valley College.
August 2011
At Women In Government's Third Annual Energy Summit, various energy state portfolios were discussed. Legislators from Women In Government’s four regions discussed current legislative initiatives and hot topics regarding energy policies in their state.
Representative Peggy Judd has just completed her first term in the Arizona House, where she serves on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Agriculture and Water Committee, and Health and Human Services Committee. There are a variety of energy providers and energy users in her district, including the state’s only nuclear power plant and Arizona Electric Power Apache Generating Station, a member of the Touchstone Energy and Rural Electric Cooperatives. Her agricultural district has experienced an increase in solar energy development, and the economy is based on the Arizona’s five Cs: Cotton, Copper, Citrus, Cattle, and Climate. Arizona has trouble because they only have one source of water, the Colorado River, which they share with four other states, and cannot provide the needs for the state. Arizona is currently stagnated. Solar needs to be developed more, but does not currently have enough backing.
Senator Amy Koch is serving her third term in the Minnesota State Legislature, and is currently the Majority Leader. She also serves as the Chair of the Rules and Administration Committee, and as a member on the Energy, Utilities, and Telecommunications Committee. Senator Koch is a former Vice Chair of the Senate District 19 Leadership Committee and has been a delegate to her BPOU, Congressional, and State conventions. She is active as a volunteer at St. Francis Xavier, Buffalo, and as an adult leader for Wright County 4-H. In 1994, Minnesota began nuclear storage of waste on Prairie Island. They charge nuclear companies per cask of nuclear waste, and that money goes straight into a renewable energy fund. The Next Generation Energy Act, they put a moratorium on coal and nuclear energy, and the CIP program- Conservation Improvement Program, which requires utilities reduce their consumption by 1% from their 2005 levels every year. This went into effect in 2007, but they still hold Minnesota to the 2005 levels. BUT, due to these changes, the costs of utilities for consumers increased significantly. Transmission issues,- brining wind energy to Minnesota takes money and transmission that needs to use non renewable energy. Large energy plants take a long time to plan, sight, and build. We must plan ahead for decades, at least 25 years. With the moratorium on coal in Minnesota, they have faced contention with North Dakota, their border neighbor who does not have a moratorium.
State Representative Vickie Orsini Nardello was first elected to the Connecticut General Assembly in 1994 representing the 89th Assembly District. She has been recognized by the Sierra Club, the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, and the People’s Action for Clean Energy (PACE) for her strong stance supporting environmental issues. She has served as co-chair of the Energy & Technology Committee since the 2009 legislative session. Connecticut has extremely high energy costs, the second highest in the country. They have worked to complete a 247 page bill with comprehensive coverage to provide renewable energy.
Representative Tiffany Rogers of Stuttgart is serving her second term in the Arkansas House of Representatives where she represents District 14, which includes all of Prairie County and part of Arkansas County. During the 88th General Assembly, Representative Rogers is serving as the House Chair of the Joint Energy Committee. She also serves on the House Judiciary Committee, and the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee. She is a member of the Arkansas Legislative Council and the Arkansas State Game and Fish Commission Oversight Committee. Her committee has regular meetings, invites speakers to attend and educate them on various topics, and works together in a bi-partisan effort to promote renewable. Arkansas has a huge trucking industry that it needs to take into place. After meeting a speaker at a Women In Government conference, she was able to have him come into the community college in her district. She is also responsible for passing a bill that promoted the conservation of energy and nine natural resources in buildings owned by public ten agencies and institutions of higher education, and for other purposes. Click here to view the act.
In another presentation at the Third Annual Energy Summit, Josh Young, the Director of Government Affairs at the American Chemistry Council presented about encouraging adoption of energy efficient construction & products. More than 40 percent of energy in the United States is used in buildings and 31 percent is used in industry. Through updated building codes and tax incentives, states can potentially improve energy efficiencies in the industrial, commercial, and residential sectors and create significant energy savings. This session discussed a variety of ideas and policy options for legislators to consider. Josh Young represents the chemical and plastics industries before legislative and regulatory agencies throughout the country. He began working for the American Chemistry Council (ACC) in March 2004 and serves as the Government Affairs Director in their Washington, DC headquarters. Mr. Young works with local chemistry councils, environmental federations, recycling organizations, and industry groups at the local, state and federal level. Mr. Young spoke to legislators about how the ACC uses and works with energy products. He also talked about “green” buildings and the codes used to rate them. LEED is the most famous and widely respected, because it is the most advertised, and it is not the only “green” checklist that should be considered.
An update on renewable energy technologies and policies was another topic featured at Women In Government’s Third Annual Energy Summit. This session discussed the latest policy developments regarding wind energy and other renewable energy technologies, particularly those related to state adoption of renewable portfolio standards and tax policies that encourage the use of renewable energy, as well as innovations in addressing transmission challenges. Bruce Burcat, the featured speaker, is an attorney with more than twenty years’ experience in the utility and energy regulatory fields. He is responsible for the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition’s (MAREC) efforts to promote the growth and development of renewable energy in nine jurisdictions: New Jersey; Pennsylvania; Ohio; Maryland; Virginia; Delaware; West Virginia; North Carolina; and the District of Columbia. Mr. Burcat joined MAREC as its Executive Director after serving for nearly fifteen years as the Executive Director of the Delaware Public Service Commission. To learn more about this topic, please view his presentation here.
A study conducted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) showed that each $1 of State Energy Program funds is associated with a cost savings of $7.22. Additionally, each $1 of federal funds is typically leveraged by $10.71 of state and private funds, making the federal money go much further than typical federal energy programs. At Women In Government’s Third Annual Energy Summit Kate Marks, the managing director of the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO), spoke about her work. She is responsible for informing the nation’s 56 state and territory energy offices on federal action, sharing energy program opportunities, and coordinating peer exchange. Prior to joining NASEO, Ms. Marks was the energy program director in the Environment, Energy, and Transportation Division of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). There she advised state legislators and legislative staff on energy and environmental issues, including energy security, renewable energy, state energy policy planning, and energy efficiency. Ms. Marks has authored publications on energy and environmental issues and testified before state legislative bodies on energy policy. Oregon is an excellent of self funding mechanisms. For more information on this topic, please view her presentation here.
June 2011
Women In Government featured energy as a topic at its 14th Annual Western Regional Conference, held in Denver, Colorado on June 16-18, 2011. States which have adopted diversified energy portfolios have often experienced an increase in economic development and job creation. This session featured ideas and innovations from joint efforts by Colorado government, superclusters, and energy companies, as well as examples of ways in which state legislators could support similar successes in their states. Tim Reeser, the Executive Director, of Cenergywith Colorado State University’s Clean Energy Commercialization Arm, presented, which is available here, and Mona Newton, Central Regional Representative from the Governor's Energy Office gave a presentation, which is also available here.
January 2011
At Women In Government's 17th Annual State Directors' Conference & Ninth Biennial First-Term Legislators Conference, Neiland Wright, MS, the Cheif Architect and Innovation Officer at Triton Federal Systems gave an overview on the industries and occupations which comprise "green jobs" he highlighted the significance of this growing sector to revitalizing and expanding the US economy.
May 2009
Women In Government also featured energy and environmental issues at both our Eastern/Southern and Midwestern Regional Conferences. In May 2009, at the 11th Annual Eastern/10th Annual Southern Regional Conference, Women In Government hosted a several segments that brought together legislators, regulators, and energy suppliers to discuss alternative energy issues, balanced energy approaches, recycling, and "green" jobs. In June 2009, at the 16th Annual Midwestern Conference, Women In Government hosted several sessions on alternative energy use, water issues in the midwest, and wind energy use.
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