Regional Clean Energy Summit
Sept. 19, 2016
Good afternoon. I want to personally welcome you to the University of Colorado Boulder and the Sustainability, Environment and Energy Complex that we call SEEC.
SEEC – and the people working, teaching and learning inside and outside of it – represent our commitment to research and education in sustainability, energy and the environment. This is home to 1,000 environmental studies students who are pursuing the same important goals that you are.
The work that goes on here furthers our partnerships with federal labs and agencies and Colorado’s research universities who share a goal to develop and transfer clean renewable energy for the benefit of all. We highly value our Colorado Energy Research Collaboratory partners NREL, Colorado State University, and the Colorado School of Mines.
We are so pleased to have Gov. John Hickenlooper and former Gov. Bill Ritter, participating in this important summit today. I would like to thank Paul Johnson, President of the Colorado School of Mines for joining us as well. Allow me to acknowledge Terri Fiez, vice chancellor for research; and also Bob McGrath, director of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, a partnership of NREL and CU-Boulder.
We know that developing clean energy and transferring it to market requires a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional approach.
Introduction of Under Secretary for Science and Energy Franklin Orr
Perhaps no one knows this better than our keynote speaker, Dr. Lynn Orr and I have the pleasure of introducing him. Dr. Orr was sworn in as the Under Secretary for Science and Energy in 2014. As the Under Secretary in the U.S. Department of Energy, Dr. Orr is the principal advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on clean energy technologies, science and research initiatives.
Dr. Orr is the inaugural Under Secretary for the office. He oversees D.O.E. offices of electricity delivery, renewable energy, fossil energy, Indian energy policy, and nuclear energy.
Prior to joining the Department of Energy Dr. Orr served as the founding director of the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford, and he was the founding director of the Stanford Global Climate and Energy Project.
Please welcome Dr. Franklin Orr!