Leslie Berlowitz, president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, began her introductory remarks to the academy’s Workshop on Social Science and the Alternative Energy Future, held at GW’s Marvin Center May 19-20, by recognizing President Steven Knapp.
“Steve was elected a fellow of the academy just a month ago,” she said. “We did so in recognition of his extraordinary academic scholarship, as well as his leadership.”
Dr. Knapp returned the compliment. “Since its inception 231 years ago, the American Academy has had as one of its core missions convening discussions of challenges facing our nation,” he said. “Of course, the issues that you will be discussing today and tomorrow are no exception to that.”
In the past few years, GW has had the privilege to host alternative energy discussions on several occasions, Dr. Knapp said.
“Like many universities across the nation we are making a major push in the field of sustainability and alternative energy,” he said. “We have a particular focus as an institution on combining fundamental research with policy work.”
GW’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus is home to researchers engaged in “fundamental work on alternative energy resources,” Dr. Knapp said, and scholars in Foggy Bottom are working on “removing the economic and policy barriers to the adoption of alternative energy technologies.”
“We are very excited and interested in the work that you all will be doing,” he told the attendees.
About 50 people attended the conference, which addressed a wide range of topics, including the ways people make decisions about using energy and the complexities surrounding public acceptance of new energy technologies.
Before introducing the first keynote speaker, Steven Koonin, under secretary for science at the Department of Energy, Ms. Berlowitz noted that a flock of sheep that Dr. Knapp owns, which was part of the Hog Island flock that George Washington developed, were of particular interest to American Academy members.
“George Washington was one of the first members of the American Academy,” she said. “As a member, he was concerned that we apply research.”
The American Academy, which was founded in 1780, counts other illustrious members in its ranks, including John Adams, James Bowdoin and John Hancock. The independent policy research center and society, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., has 4,600 members today.
Dr. Koonin, one of about 25 presenters at the conference, including a second keynote address by Myron Gutmann, assistant director for social, behavioral and economic sciences at the National Science Foundation, provided just that applied research focus.
“When I started in energy almost a decade ago with a theoretical physicist background, I thought it was all about the technology,” he said. “Then having been in the business world in energy for about five years, I came to understand how important the business and economics were. Now living in the government, the importance of policy and human behavior in dealing with energy challenges has become even more evident to me.”
Dr. Koonin lamented the rarity of data and graphs in most discussions about alternative energy and shared several data-packed slides.
Pointing to one slide about energy sources, Dr. Koonin noted, “The amount of inefficiency in the system is stunning.”
He noted three challenges: energy security (but he questioned the phrase “foreign oil” noting that oil is a commodity over which the U.S. has “good leverage”); competiveness (for example, the U.S. has a corner on just 1 percent of the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries globally); and environmental issues (how quickly greenhouse gas emissions are accumulating).
He also said that corn, soy or a variety of other fuel sources aren’t likely to make a significant impact what it comes to meeting America’s energy needs.
Even if corn could be used at 100 percent efficiency – which means no production of corn syrup, animal feed or popcorn – there is simply not enough corn to make a difference.
What about the stories of people recycling the leftover oil from their French fries and dumping them into the gas tanks of their cars?
“It’s the difference between feel good stuff in energy and things that are really going to have an impact,” Dr. Koonin said.