Why It's Important
Energy reaches into all aspects of our lives, from the food we eat to our national security. As technologies and environmental concerns come to the fore, it becomes ever more critical that we make informed smart choices about our future. We believe becoming "Energy Literate" is key to this.
The Energy Conversation brings high-level attention to this overarching national issue by providing a forum to engage senior leaders, academics and researchers, both inside and outside of government. The intent is to learn about all the issues and potential solutions that are occurring in government and industry that can address the critical problems facing our country.
Our story
It began with a dozen people, understanding only that the topic was vitally important and that we shared, to varying degrees, ignorance about all its facets and needed to educate ourselves. We also understood that everyone in the conversation had to participate as equals no matter what their institutional status and that, if we were to have any affect on changing the behavior of individuals and institutions to solve energy problems, we had to find a way for people to break out of their professional silos and listen to each other, share ideas and strategies, learn from each other and experts, and collaborate on creating a knowledge base that will—in the long run—change behaviors of institutions.
The Conversation’s membership is now in the thousands— including high level individuals who volunteer their time and bring their agencies along with them. The original small group had many ties to the armed services. As the armed forces are the biggest users of petroleum-based fuels, they were seen as the primary target of our efforts. We reached out to the Department of Defense and found a shared interest. They too wanted to the create energy literacy and build an energy network among government, industry, and nonprofits.
Early in 2006, DoD became our sponsor of a monthly evening seminar series called: "Energy: A Conversation About Our National Addiction" held at the Doubletree Hotel in Crystal City, VA. The first Conversation began with former Director of the C.I.A., Jim Woolsey, followed by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett in April. Guest speakers from industry, think tanks, government and military attract an array of people from different sectors who are equally dependent on energy and critical actors in the solution.
Almost immediately, the Conversation expanded to other agencies that had a major role in the government energy story. Soon, they—the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Transportation, Commerce and State, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the office of the Director of National Intelligence on behalf of the entire Intelligence Community--became co-sponsors of the Conversation and collaborators in the effort.
Right now, our major activities include working on the monthly energy seminar, the inter agency collaborative website & government energy yellow pages, and a DoD-focused effort on creating and maintaining energy smart buildings. In addition to these large projects, all those involved in the Energy Conversation are continually expanding the Conversation to their own agencies and their own networks, creating a ripple effect.
In the future, we will be involved with many more efforts which, at this point, purposely cannot be foreseen. We don’t know what opportunities will arise in the ever-changing environment. What we do know is that to be effective, the Conversation must continually evolve, grow, and change to take advantage of whatever situation that exists in any point in time. This is the only way to become more relevant, involve more people and institutions in the network, in the collaboration. The specific programs and projects themselves are not the most important part of the Conversation. What's most important is the collaboration because the only way we will get anywhere is if we all work together!
