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IEA Review of US Energy Policies - Integrating Security and Climate Change Concerns Presentation: Andreas Biermann Country Studies Division International Energy Agency Discussants: Jeff Skeer Office of European and Asian Affairs US Department of Energy

Friday, February 15, 2008
Room 2123, Rayburn House Office Building
Washington DC, 20515

Event Description:

Every 4-5 years, the International Energy Administration conducts a “peer review” of the energy policies of each member country.  This program will provide an overview of the key findings of the IEA review of U.S. energy policy, which was completed in 2007 and will be released the morning of February 15, 2008,  before this event. 

This review takes an in-depth look at two closely connected challenges that shape all debates on the nation’s energy policy path: how to increase security by reducing the dependence on imported supplies; and how to address growing emissions of greenhouse gases.   The review examine current U.S. policies and provides recommendations on how the United States can do more to answer the challenges of both improving its security of energy supply and lowering its emissions intensity, demonstrating the significant improvements that can already be realized through existing technologies. 

The findings of the U.S. review will be presented by Andreas Biermann, the primary coordinator and author of the review. 

Biographies:

Andreas Biermann joined the IEA in October 2004, and is a Desk Officer in the Country Studies Division where he has so far managed the Energy Policy Reviews of Spain, Norway, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Austria, and the USA. He is currently working on the first IEA Energy Policy Review of the European Union's Energy Policies which will be published in September 2008. Prior to joining the IEA Andreas worked for four years at the Energy Saving Trust in London, where he became an acknowledged expert on micro-generation and the regulation of small-scale generator connections to electricity networks, and at the University of Warwick's Business School in Coventry, UK, where he researched environmental regulation of power stations as a Marie Curie Research Fellow. While at the EST he built up the renewables portfolio of the Trust, and was a member of the team designing the first large-scale Solar Grants scheme in the UK which ran from 2004, and responsible for the specification of the tender for the small-scale renewables grant scheme which ran from 2005.

Jeff Skeer is Coordinator for Multilateral Activities in the Office of European and Asian Affairs at the United States Department of Energy (USDOE).  In that capacity, he is a U.S. delegate to the APEC Energy Working Group (EWG) and the Standing Group on Long Term Cooperation of the International Energy Agency.  He is also actively involved in the EU-US Biofuels Dialogue on policies and regulations, second generation biofuels technology, sustainable biofuels development, and standards.  He is chairing the APEC Biofuels Task Force whose report was welcomed by the Eighth APEC Energy Ministers Meeting (EMM-8) in Australia in May 2007.   The Task Force found that biofuels from a variety of crops are cost-effective at current oil prices, that biofuels can lower greenhouse gas emissions, and that biofuels can displace a sizeable share of petroleum use over time.  It is also engaged in studies on the potential for sustainable biofuel resource development. At USDOE, he has organized three in-depth reviews of U.S. energy policies and programs by the International Energy Agency (IEA).  From 1989-1996, he worked at IEA in Paris, catalyzing multilateral agreements on electric demand side management, hybrid vehicles, hydropower and the environment, and photovoltaic power systems.