IEEE-USA Energy Policy Committee

Energy is an important strategic issue at this time. The IEEE-USA Energy Policy Committee has increased its activity on energy infrastructure issues in its providing technical information to governmental decision-makers and in its development and dissemination of energy policy positions. In the recent past, the Energy Policy Committee has focused on the future of the electrical power transmission grid, issues of the electric marketplace structure, and aspects of national security such as vulnerabilities of gas pipelines and implications for electric reliability. The committee is now also addressing expected implications of the change of leadership of the Senate, especially the evolution of the Energy Policy Act (H.R.4), which incorporated IEEE-USA-recommended aspects on enforcement of reliability standards and interconnection standards for distributed generation.
On a longer time scale, the Energy Policy Committee is developing policy position papers on a range of relevant topics: Reliability, Need for a National Power Study, Electric Power Transmission Policy, Nuclear Power for Today, Electric and Hybrid Vehicles, and Advanced Nuclear Power Research and Development. Many of these policy areas have aspects in the purview of NPSS. The Committee will likely also be updating the Fusion Power statement to address the recent recommendations from the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee on the US strategy for burning plasma studies and the ongoing FESAC study of fusion development paths.
Please contact me with suggestions and expressions of interest in getting involved in these activities, since member- and society-involvement are key to IEEE-USA’s government relations program.
Ned Sauthoff, the NPSS Liaison to the IEEE-USA Energy Policy Committee, can be reached at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, MS-37, P.O. Box 451 Princeton, N.J. 08543; Phone: +1 609 243-3207; Fax: +1 609- 243-3266; E-mail: n.sauthoff@ieee.org. The assistance of IEEE-USA's Bill Williams is gratefully acknowledged.