Webinar Highlights Transportation’s Role in America’s Energy Future

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A sue Weisler

James Winebrake

The increasing role of energy production and use in economic, national security and environmental policy will be the topic of the upcoming webinar and panel discussion America’s Energy Future: A Transportation Perspective.

The event, hosted by Rochester Institute of Technology and the U.S. Transportation Research Board, will be held from 1:45 to 4:30 p.m. Aug. 12 in RIT’s Golisano Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

“The United States’ future energy independence and environmental health is closely linked to the development and direction of the transportation sector,” notes James Winebrake, chair of RIT’s Department of Science, Technology and Society/Public Policy and organizer of the webinar. “By bringing experts from various fields together we hope to enhance the policy discussion and develop better solutions to the energy challenges we face.”

The webinar will include live Web-broadcast presentations by Michael Ramage, retired executive vice president of Exxon Mobil Research and Engineering, and John Heywood, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering at MIT, both representing the National Academy of Engineering. It will also include Jim Zucchetto, director of the Board on Energy and Environmental Systems of the National Research Council.

It will be followed by an energy policy panel, which will include Winebrake and Matthew Fronk, director for the Center for Sustainable Mobility at RIT and former chief fuel cell engineer for General Motors. Sponsors include RIT and the Genesee Region Clean Communities initiative.

The event is part of a series of public forums and policy discussions being sponsored by the National Academies as part of a four-year study designed to develop authoritative estimates on the current and future supply of and demand for energy, examine the viability of new and existing technologies to meet those demands and analyze associated economic and environmental impacts and projected costs.

The National Academies serve as the nation’s preeminent scientific society and provide expert advice and support in the development of national science and technology policy. The institution’s affiliates include the National Academy of Engineering, the National Research Council and the Transportation Research Board.