White House Launches New Energy Review
President Barack Obama launched a new initiative to review the U.S. energy infrastructure and strategy every four years. Dubbed the Quadrennial Energy Review (QER), the first review will focus on the development of a comprehensive strategy for the infrastructure involved in transporting, transmitting and delivering energy.
The QER will be developed through robust inter-agency dialogue and engagement of external stakeholders and will help to build on the United States’ progress toward greater energy and climate security, according to a statement released by the White House.
Building on the foundation provided in the president’s “Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future” and his Climate Action Plan, this QER will study the opportunities and challenges that the U.S. energy infrastructure faces as a result of transformations in energy supply, markets and use. These challenges include aging and capacity, impacts of climate change and cyber and physical threats. The QER will provide rigorous analysis in a focused, actionable document for policymakers across all sectors.
The development of the QER will include broad outreach, including to the private sector; state, local and tribal governments, as well as labor, other non-governmental organizations and the academic community. The QER will be conducted by an inter-agency task force co-chaired by the leaders of the White House Domestic Policy Council and Office of Science and Technology Policy, and includes representation from all relevant executive departments and agencies. The Department of Energy will play a key role in providing analytic support to the QER.
According to the Presidential Memorandum signed Jan. 9, the QER will provide an integrated view of and recommendations for Federal energy policy in the context of economic, environmental, occupational, security and health and safety priorities; review the adequacy of existing executive and legislative activities and recommend additional executive and legislative actions as appropriate; assess and recommend priorities for research, development and demonstration programs to support key goals; and identify analytic tools and data needed to support further policy development and implementation.
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