Shirley Ann Jackson President Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Leadership for a Comprehensive Energy Roadmap: The First 100 Days

Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D.

National Press Club Luncheon and Speech
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
12:30 p.m.–2:00 p.m.
National Press Club, 529 14th Street, NW, Washington, D.C.

The Council on Competitiveness Vice Chair and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D., spoke to the National Press Club outlining a 100-Day Energy Action Plan to guide the next Administration and Congress toward a comprehensive energy strategy. Developed over the last year by more than 200 corporate CEO’s, labor leaders, university Presidents and other energy experts engaged with the Council’s Energy Security, Innovation and Sustainability initiative, the 100-Day Energy Action Plan charts a path to provide affordable energy for businesses and individuals, produce domestic jobs, and protect the environment. Dr. Jackson will identify the national security, economic, and environmental risks and opportunities inherent in meeting the rising global energy demand.

The Council’s ESIS initiative is led by Dr. Jackson and her fellow co-chairs, James Owens, CEO of Caterpillar, Inc.; and Michael Langford, National President of the Utility Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO.

They are working to develop a clear energy policy framework and to build the broad coalition that will be essential to move a comprehensive energy agenda forward as quickly as possible in 2009

Dr. Jackson is engaged in the energy issue from an unusual array of vantage points: as President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — a technological research university; as co-chair of the Council's ESIS initiative; as a member of the Board of the NYSE Euronext, FedEx, IBM, Marathon Oil, and PSEG; and as former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1995-1999). A theoretical physicist, Jackson has held senior leadership and advisory positions in government, industry, research, and academe, with a particular focus on global energy security and the national capacity for innovation.

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