The Action Is in the Energy Committees

Editor's Note

April / May 2007 By: Bob Cochnar Volume 5 Number 2

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While there are more than a few major national and international issues that will occupy the time of our elected representatives in Washington this year, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce will be grappling with their fair share—and then some.

The effects of climate change—you can call it global warming—and what to do about them are high on the agenda, but so is reducing the dependence on foreign oil, finding ways to encourage the development and use of alternative forms of energy, increasing fuel economy and protecting the environment. There are no easy answers. Both committees are conducting numerous hearings and plenty of legislation will be written.

The committees, however, have somewhat different briefs. The Senate panel confines itself to legislative activity in the areas of regulation, conservation, strategic petroleum reserves, nuclear energy, Indian affairs, public lands and their renewable resources, surface mining, mineral leasing and water resources. The House committee deals with many of these topics, but is also engaged in health care, food and drug safety and telecommunications. That committee, by the way, is the oldest standing committee in the House.

What separates these two committees from others is the successful effort among its members to remain as bipartison, or even nonpartisan, as possible.

For example, Senator Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., recently took over the chairmanship from Senator Pete Domenici, R-N.M. While I haven't checked the archives, it's quite possible that historically Energy is the only Senate committee that has been chaired by senators from the same state. And Bingaman and Domenici actually get along.

They have often introduced legislation jointly, most recently a bill that would dramatically expand the use of renewable fuels over the next two decades. Similar cooperation can be found in the House committee, which is chaired by Representative John Dingell, D-Mich.

You'll be interested in Bingaman's article (Page 12) and in the interview with Dingell (Page 13). They have their work cut out for them. Let's hope their comity will carry over to the Senate and House at large. That's a very big hope.

If you want to know where the world's fastest supercomputers are located, look no further than the federal energy laboratories. They can proudly claim five of the top ten. Our set of articles on high-performance computing begins on Page 15 with a piece by Dave Turek of IBM—which builds many of those speedy machines—about aspects of commercialization. One of our columnists, Deborah Wince-Smith, president of the Council on Competitiveness, points out that the Department of Energy's INCITE program "each year awards enormous blocks of time on some of the world's most powerful supercomputers to projects with strong potential for breakthrough advances." So the public sector can benefit directly.

Finally, I'd like to call your attention to the 16-page insert in this issue. It highlights a number of fledgling technology companies with fascinating ideas that will be presenting at the 14th annual Equity Capital Symposium sponsored by Technology Ventures Corporation, which publishes Innovation. Take a look. You may find something interesting.