TEC 2013: Powering Global Energy Security

Saturday, March 2nd - Sunday, March 3rd, 2013

Availability, accessibility, affordability, and acceptability: these “Four As” are at the core of global energy security. As energy demands increase around the world, the global community must balance the “Four As” while keeping up with need. Thanks to major innovations in extraction technologies, fossil fuels remain an available and affordable global asset. Yet climate change, geopolitical risk, and environmental impacts are changing the energy debate and challenging the acceptability of fossil fuels. In the short term, emerging green technologies often lack accessibility, availability, and affordability.

TEC 2013 explored how both developing and developed countries are working to meet their energy needs, manage geopolitical risk, and ensure energy security. Through six diverse but interconnected panels, TEC 2013 addressed a number of pressing questions, including:

• What role will the U.S. energy mix have in the global energy market?
• Should all countries be held to the same energy acceptability standards, given the lack of reliable power in developing nations and the continuing low price of fossil fuels?
• What risks are countries willing to take to ensure energy availability?

By bringing together international policy makers, innovators, academics, and entrepreneurs, TEC 2013 explored how to create a mix of energy resources that is environmentally, politically, and economically secure.

Bill Richardson completed his second term as Governor of New Mexico in January 2011. He served for 15 years in northern New Mexico representing the 3rd Congressional District. He also served in 1997 as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and in 1998, he was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. While a congressman, Gov. Richardson served as a special envoy on many sensitive international missions. He successfully won the release of hostages, American servicemen, and prisoners in North Korea, Iraq, Cuba, and Sudan. As Governor, his bold governing style moved New Mexico forward in several important areas, including clean energy, education, public safety, environment, transportation, healthcare, and $1 billion in tax cuts for New Mexicans. He made New Mexico the “Clean Energy State” by requiring utilities to meet 20 percent of New Mexico’s electrical demand from renewable sources, and he established a Renewable Energy Transmission Authority to deliver New Mexico’s world-class renewable resources to market. Currently, Gov. Richardson serves as Senior Fellow for Latin America at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and has joined several non-profit and for-profit boards, including Abengoa’s International Advisory Board, the fifth largest biofuels producer in the U.S., WRI World Resources Institute, Refugees International, and Chairman of the International Council for Science and the Environment. He received a BA from Tufts in 1970 and an MA from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1971

Dr. Joseph A. Stanislaw is founder of the advisory firm The JAStanislaw Group, LLC and an Independent Senior Advisor to the Energy & Resources group of Deloitte LLP. Dr. Stanislaw was a founder of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and Managing Director for non-U.S. activity until he was named President and CEO. Dr. Stanislaw is an adjunct professor in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. He serves on the Boards of several corporations with interests in the areas of clean, alternative, and renewable energy. Dr. Stanislaw was a Research Fellow, Lecturer in economics, and founding member of the Energy Research Group at Cambridge University. He was a Senior Economist at the International Energy Agency in Paris. Dr. Stanislaw is the co-author of The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy. Dr. Stanislaw received a BA cum laude from Harvard College, a PhD in economics from the University of Edinburgh, and he holds an Honorary Doctorate and Professorship from Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas.

Dr. Susan Tierney is an expert on energy policy and economics, specializing in the electric and gas industries. Her work has covered regional transmission organizations, siting of generation and transmission facilities and natural gas pipeline projects, natural gas markets, electric system reliability, and environmental policy and regulation. A former Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Energy and state environmental secretary and public utility commissioner, she is a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s energy project, the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board (and its Shale Gas subcommittee), and the National Petroleum Council. Dr. Tierney also serves as an ambassador for the U.S. Clean Energy Education and Empowerment program, an initiative of the DOE and MIT, and as convening co-lead author of the energy chapter in the new draft National Climate Assessment. In 2012, she received the Hall of Fame award from the New England Clean Energy Council for outstanding achievements in accelerating the region’s clean energy economy. Dr. Tierney received her PhD and MA in regional planning and public policy from Cornell University.