March 26, 1997

FPN97-8 Fusion Program Notes

White House Energy Study

As expected (See FPN97-4) the White House has announced the formation of a "Panel of Experts on Energy Research and Development" to review current and projected U.S. energy R&D programs and to make recommendations on federal support for energy research and development, incentives for private sector investments in energy research and development and U.S. commitments to international cooperation in energy research and development. A March 20 press release said that the "Issues covered by the panel will include R&D on energy and end-use efficiency, renewables, advanced fossile fuel technologies, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion." The panel is to report its findings to the President by October 1997.

The members of the panel are John Holdren (Harvard University), chair, Diana MacArthur (Dynamac Corp.), Charles Vest (MIT), Virginia Weldon (Monsanto), Lillian Shiao-Yen Wu (IBM), John Young (Hewlett Packard), John Ahearne (Duke U.), Richard Balzhiser (EPRI), Robert Frosch (Harvard U.), Joan Bok (New England Electric System), Bill Fulkerson (ORNL), Robert Conn (UCSD), Hal Harvey (The Energy Foundation), William Fisher (U. Texas), Thomas Fisher (Northern Illinois Gas Company), Larry Papay (Bechtel), Dan Lashof (National Resources Defense Council), Laura Tyson (UC, Berkeley), Don Paul (Chevron Corp.), Robert Williams (Princeton U.), and Maxine Savitz (Allied Signal).

For more information, contact: Stephen O. Dean