The University of Chicago Convocation

Informing, influencing energy policy

Energy policies on many levels of government and at many organizations around the country are in disarray, says Robert Rosner, professor of astronomy and astrophysics, and physics at the University of Chicago and the College, and former director of the Argonne National Laboratory. “You only have to read the newspaper or watch the actions of Congress to see that many of the key players are uninformed, their ideas are often uninspiring, and the topics of energy and climate change have been grossly politicized.”

The new Harris Energy Policy Institute (HEPI), launched at the start of the 2010-11 academic year by the Harris School of Public Policy Studies with the help of Arete, is designed to inform and guide the energy and climate-change debates. “This will be applied research, not philosophizing without an audience,” Rosner says. “Our work will be carried out with the level of intellectual rigor that we expect at the University. We aim to become one of the go-to places for policymakers and to have a significant impact on crafting policy.”

By the end of this academic year HEPI expects to have five, or so, University faculty members engaged part time with the Institute. For now, it is developing courses and a degree program, and organizing faculty workshops and speaker programs to identify, examine and prioritize the issues it will address. Here are some of the questions on the table:

• Will the United States see a nuclear renaissance? If so, how will concerns about safety and nuclear waste be addressed?
• Does carbon sequestration make sense? If so, who would insure the sequestration company against a calamity with the reservoir?
• Does carbon cap-and-trade have a future in the United States? If so, how should the units be priced? If not, what could play a similar role?

A new nexus

Arete has been involved with the new Institute since its inception. “Rosner came up with the idea, and we’ve been helping him think it through,” says Ken Olliff, director for strategic foundation initiatives within Alumni Relations and Development, and overseer of project development for Arete.

Now that HEPI is up and running, Arete is helping with fund raising and crafting proposals. HEPI was started with seed money from the University but it is now seeking funds from foundations, the government and other sources.

“Whether the Institute, itself, funds research will depend on how well funded it will be in terms of endowment income,” says Dan Black, professor and deputy dean of the Harris School.

HEPI will offer courses in partnership with other departments. It will also identify ongoing courses and research related to energy and policymaking in order to raise awareness of what is already going on around the University and to foster more partnerships, he adds.

“The new Institute is vitally important because it will act as the center of gravity pulling together resources from around campus and Argonne so that the whole can add up to more than the sum of its parts,” Olliff says. “It will tie together pockets of expertise that typically don’t work together in analytical policy work, natural science research and social science research.”

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will be a part of this change, as well. In concert with the creation of HEPI, the magazine moved its offices back to campus after a three-year hiatus in downtown Chicago. “Although the Bulletin will remain independent, having it in such close proximity to the University will add to our intellectual environment,” Black says.

Greg Borzo