Energy and Environment Program

Energy Policy Forum

Leaders from business, government, academia, and non-profit organizations established The Aspen Institute Energy Policy Forum in 1977 to discuss a range of current and emerging energy policy issues. Energy Daily has called the Forum “one of the most venerable and influential gatherings of energy cognoscenti.” The format relies heavily on dialogue among experts with varied experience and perspectives. A few brief discussion-starting presentations begin each half-day session, with the majority of the time reserved for dialogue. With an early emphasis on oil import dependence and more recent explorations of climate change and electricity restructuring, the Forum has regularly examined such major questions as fuel choice, development of technology, adequacy of supplies and the role of government.

The 32^nd annual Forum in July 2009 examined the electricity transmission grid in the US, the need for enhancements to improve reliability and allow the use of remote sources of renewable energy, the financial and siting challenges of building new transmission, the question of who pays, the potential and challenges of electric cars, and the opportunities provided to customers and utilities by new “smart grid” technologies. Linda Stuntz, former Deputy Secretary of Energy, and Susan Tomasky, Executive Vice President of American Electric Power, co-chaired the Forum.

 With the expectation that a new Administration and Congress in 2009 would actively consider climate change legislation, the 2008 Forum considered "Climate Change and the Electricity Sector." Chaired by Jonathan Lash, President of World Resources Institute, and Jeff Sterba, CEO of PNM Resources, the Forum explored the science of climate change and the economic challenges of mitigation, heard from a panel of utility CEOs, considered several policy choices, and discussed new and evolving carbon markets. Download Contents, Foreword, Agenda and Participants; The Challenge; Executive Choices; Policy Design Issues; Financial and Regulatory Issues. Download the entire report here.

The 2007 Forum, "Energy: Old Challenges, New Opportunities," focused on energy decisions facing the United States, including vulnerabilities caused by increasing oil and gas imports, how to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and the move toward greater competition in electricity markets. Under the chairmanship of Walter M. Higgins, CEO of Sierra Pacific Resources, and William W. Hogan, Professor of Public Policy & Administration at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, the group also explored solutions including demand reduction, nuclear power, renewable fuels, carbon capture and storage, and improved auto fuel efficiency. Download Contents, Conclusions, Agenda and Participants; Vulnerability and Liquid Fuel Demand; Demand Reduction in Buildings; Reducing Carbon Emissions from Electricity Generation; Governance of Electricity Markets.

Energy: The New Normal? was the theme of the 2006 Forum, chaired by Phil Sharp, President of Resources for the Future and former Chair of the U.S. House Energy and Power Subcommittee The Forum explored from various perspectives whether high energy prices, increased fighting in the Mideast, and a growing acceptance of the need to act on global climate change has changed the energy world. The forum specifically examined drivers of policy such as energy supply and demand, climate change, and geopolitics; the R&D and financing challenges of new technologies; and how various fuels are likely to fare as utilities make decisions on new generating capacity.

The 2005 Forum, chaired by Cinergy Corp. Chairman and CEO James E. Rogers, considered who will build needed new power generation and transmission facilities in light of a hybrid regulatory structure, industry reorganization, financing uncertainties, and concerns about fuel availability and regulation of carbon emissions. The Forum report, Electricity: Who Will Build New Capacity?, is organized around recommendations on market design, energy efficiency, innovation and technology choice, carbon management, and infrastructure security.

In 2004 the Forum topic was Fossil Fuels, the Hydrogen Economy, and Policy Choices. Chaired by Red Cavaney and Susan Tomasky, the forum considered variables affecting each of the fossil fuels, domestically and globally, including new technologies and the competition offered by alternatives such as renewables and nuclear. It also examined the problems and potential of hydrogen, including its primary fuel source, and considered recommendations for near-term government energy policy.

In 2003 the Forum focused on Electricity Restructuring. Chaired by former Director of Central Intelligence and Undersecretary of Energy John Deutch, participants discussed the advantages and disadvantages of national rules governing transmission, economic and market power issues affecting ownership, whether the markets choice of fuel is in the national interest, whether natural gas supplies are adequate, and how restructuring will affect the future of nuclear power, renewables, efficiency, and distributed generation. A series of Electricity Recommendations were sent to Congressional and Administration leaders following the Forum.

The 2002 Forum took asits theme "Vulnerability and Resilience," reflecting the concerns about various forms of security following terrorist attacks, anxiety about Mideast oil supplies, worries about the sustainability of energy systems, and uncertainty about the restructuring of the electricity industry. Former Senate Energy Committee Chairman J. Bennett Johnston chaired the Forum.

In 2001, in the wake of a year of energy price volatility, serious electricity supply and price problems in California, and new proposals for energy legislation, the 25th annual Forum examined "Energy Supply and Infrastructure." Former Energy and Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger chaired the Forum, which included sessions on natural gas supply, the California electricity crisis, the future of electricity restructuring elsewhere, and domestic and world oil markets.

In 2000, the 24th annual Forum, "Market, Technology, and Policy Drivers: The Future Structure of the Electricity Industry," considered external factors that are driving the reconfiguration of electric utilities and the growth of new companies. Co-Chaired by former Presidential Science and Technology Advisor John H. Gibbons and Harvard Public Policy Professor William W. Hogan, the Forum explored e-commerce, generation and transmission technologies, investment and financial considerations, and legislative and regulatory factors.

The 1999 Forum, "Fuel Choice, Supply and Reliability in the 21st Century," was co-chaired by Secretary Schlesinger and Edison International CEO John E. Bryson. Responding to continuing interest in the rapidly restructuring utility industries and to the low prices and merger activities in the oil industry, the Forum examined how these trends might play out in coming years.

The 1998 Forum, "After Kyoto: Are There Rational Pathways to a Sustainable Global Energy System?", was chaired by AES Corporation and World Wildlife Fund Chairman Roger W. Sant. It addressed a number of major energy questions and challenges surrounding the Kyoto Protocol and the broader issue of how to achieve a sustainable global energy system. Although participants disagreed on the adequacy of the scientific basis for strong early actions to reduce greenhouse gases and on the wisdom of the Kyoto Protocol, there was widespread agreement on the need to take a long-term approach, to accelerate research and development in low-carbon and non-carbon fuels and technologies, to remove barriers to technological innovation, and to depoliticize the climate change debate. An open letter from several Forum participants transmitted these and other conclusions to the President and to Congressional leaders.

All the past reports are available online and can be downloaded, and are also available in print from the Institute's Publications Office.