NASULGC Undertakes National Energy Initiative

Peter McPherson, President of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC), recently provided an update on the Association’s energy initiative. The following is excerpted from his newsletter message. (Note: NASULGC recently changed its name to APLU, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.)

[…] President Obama has made energy a priority and there are several proposals being debated in and out of Congress. Many such proposals include a role for universities but often involve ideas that go beyond the primary work we do, e.g., building a smart grid, and cap and trade. [Universities can] advance some key principles for evaluating the proposals and the potential university role in them. […] Our capacity to sit at the table comes from the fact that we represent powerful institutions in every state that are ready to help solve the energy problem. [Below is a draft of the principles NASULGC will seek to advance.]

• The federal energy effort should have an effective organizational structure that facilitates government/university/industry cooperation in the country. […]
• Federal energy programs should be designed to take full advantage of university potential contributions.
• The programs must be designed to provide adequate resources for fundamental research, to allow for transformational improvements in existing technologies, and to ensure good ideas move rapidly from research to product development to commercial applications.
• The energy problem is a global energy problem and programs must be designed to include developing nations and others as part of the solution, to bring the best ideas from around the world to the United States, and to help U.S. companies export their solutions. We hope solutions will draw on our universities’ growing international competence as well.
• The federal government’s resource commitment must match the severity and complexities of our energy and related environmental problems.
• We need the right structure and plans to solve the issue but we also need to devote substantially more resources to energy. […] We now spend less than 20 percent of what is spent on health-related research while energy and health consume similar amounts of our gross national product.

[…] Our task is urgent because substantial changes in energy and environmental policy are already underway as the Administration and the Congress restructure our energy policy framework. The agencies receiving energy funding in the recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and FY 2009 omnibus appropriations bill are already developing their implementation plans and both Congress and the Administration are developing further far-reaching energy and environmental legislation. NASULGC is working to demonstrate the broad and deep energy expertise of our members and to help carve out an appropriate university role in these programs. […]

We are developing an overall vision of what universities can offer to our nation's energy needs. What are the specific contributions universities can make to the issues being addressed by the Department of Energy and other governmental entities? Late last year, NASULGC collected information about energy work from many of our members, but this needs to be further developed. We need to be clear on what our institutions can offer and to present these strengths in a way that federal and state decision-makers can easily grasp the ways in which universities can contribute to specific aspects of the challenges they face.

[…] Universities have unique contributions to make to one of the most important problems facing us in the 21st century: figuring out how to improve quality-of-life throughout the world while learning to live within the constraints of limited natural resources and environmental realities. Collectively, I hope we can point the way for making these contributions a reality.

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Deadlines in June and October

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