Energy issues are central to the most important strategic challenges facing the United States and the world. And in the presidential campaign, they are increasingly central to the discussion of how the next president will approach America's environmental, economic and security policy.
From the idea of a gasoline tax "holiday" to ethanol subsidies to trade policy, energy issues may well dominate policy and political discussions this summer.
On May 12, the Opportunity 08 project at Brookings hosted Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) for a discussion of energy issues facing the next president.
In December of 2007, Alexander was elected by his peers to chairman of the Senate Republican Conference - the third-ranking Republican position in the U.S. Senate.
Senator Alexander has recently proposed that the U.S. launch a new, bipartisan Manhattan Project, "a 5-year effort to put America firmly on the path to clean energy independence"- The Brookings Institution
Bio
Senator Lamar Alexander
Andrew Lamar Alexander is the senior United States Senator from Tennessee and a member of the Republican Party. He was previously the 45th Governor of Tennessee from 1979 to 1987, U.S. Secretary of Education from 1991 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush and candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000.
William Antholis
William Antholis is managing director of the Brookings Institution. He has worked on foreign security and economic policy at the National Security Council and the State Department, and was director of studies at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Jason Bordoff
Jason Bordoff is Policy Director of the Hamilton Project, an economic policy initiative housed at The Brookings Institution committed to promoting more broadly shared prosperity.
Jason has written on a broad range of economic policy matters, particularly income security and inequality, tax policy and climate change. Jason is also a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of the association of Marshall Scholars. He is a member of the New York and Washington D.C. Bar Associations.
He previously served as special assistant to Deputy Secretary Stuart E. Eizenstat at the U.S. Treasury Department, and worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Co. in New York.
He graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he was treasurer and an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He also holds an MLitt degree from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar, and a BA magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University.
Jonathan Elkind
Jonathan Elkind's current research focuses on energy security in the United States, Europe and Eurasia.
He served previously on the staff of the National Security Council and also is the founder of EastLink Consulting, LLC, an energy-environment consultancy.
Carlos Pascual
Carlos Pascual is vice president and director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. Mr. Pascual joins Brookings after a 23 year career in the United States Department of State, National Security Council (NSC), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Before joining Brookings, Mr. Pascual served as coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization at the United States Department of State where he led and coordinated U.S. government planning to help stabilize and reconstruct societies in transition from conflict or civil strife. The primary focus of his work was Sudan, Haiti, and several conflict prevention activities in Africa, Asia and Latin America
From October 2000 - August 2003, Mr. Pascual served as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. He oversaw U.S. policy focused on promoting Ukrainian reforms critical to its integration with the Euro-Atlantic community. Key priorities included strengthening grassroots democratic initiatives, promoting counter-terrorism and non-proliferation, and building a strong private sector.
David Sandalow
David Sandalow is an Energy and Environment Scholar at the Brookings Institution. In early 2007, he released the report Ending Oil Dependence and is presently writing a book on the subject.
Additionally, he is chair of the Energy and Climate Working Group of the Clinton Global Initiative. Previously, he served as assistant secretary of state for oceans, environment and science; and senior director for environmental affairs for the National Security Council in the Clinton administration.
His articles and op-eds have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, The International Herald Tribune, and Science.
Sandalow earned his bachelor's degree from Yale College and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
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