News

Energy team taps Kennedy

By Jeffrey Hake

Posted on April 06, 2009, at 12:00 a.m.

The University of Maine’s leadership in energy research will find new volume to its voice as President Robert Kennedy was appointed to be one of 15 leaders of public and land grant universities around the country to join a National Energy Initiative Advisory Committee.

The committee, organized by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) – known until last Wednesday as the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges – intends “to maximize and advance the contributions of public research universities to the energy independence effort,” according to the association’s Web site.

Jim Turner, director of the APLU Energy Initiative, spoke about the addition of Kennedy to the committee.

“In preparation for formation of the advisory committee . APLU solicited ideas from its membership,” Turner said. “One of the most thoughtful and thorough responses came from President Kennedy. ?This was in keeping with our view of President Kennedy as a person who approaches major problems both deeply and broadly. ?He was a natural addition to the committee.”

Kennedy consulted with UMaine’s energy researchers in order to prepare his response to the APLU’s solicitation.

“When I heard they were forming this group, I asked [professor of civil and structural engineering] Habib Dagher and some of the others that are involved in the energy research going on here to assemble some materials for me that I could send to the [APLU],” Kennedy said. “It was my view . that no other university is doing as much in offshore wind, in tidal power and in cellulosic biofuels as is the University of Maine.”

The group has not formally met, but Kennedy spoke eagerly of the “opportunity to be involved at a very fundamental level” in energy research and policy.

The APLU intends to set its policy based on the committee’s collective findings and “will be formulating policy and recommendations to the Secretary of Energy and to the president [of the United States] and the Congress,” Kennedy said. “APLU is an extremely powerful organization and so when they do things thoughtfully as they always do, Congress and the president listen very carefully because it really represents the best of the research universities that the U.S. has to offer.”

“I really feel we are a national leader and could contribute to the energy discussions happening on the national level,” Kennedy said.

Describing what UMaine brings to the table, Turner spoke of?Maine’s severe winters that can be a challenge to energy researchers, and Kennedy cited UMaine’s unique areas of research “like offshore wind that have the potential to fulfill a major of the country’s energy needs in the future.” He went on to describe energy issues as “one of, and maybe even the largest, national security and societal problems that the U.S. faces. This organization made up of the major public research universities across the country has an enormous amount to contribute in technologically solving these problems.”

Kennedy said he anticipates the group will meet one or two times a year, though he does not know when the first meeting will occur. When asked if UMaine may play host to the committee in the future, he anticipated that “the offshore, tidal power and cellulosic biofuels that we’re a leader in are less understood by other universities across the country, so they might want to come to a place that is a leader and can play a role in that and study it firsthand.”

Campus Currents: Robert Kennedy