Joseph J. Romm

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph Romm, 2007
Joseph Romm, 2007

Joseph J. Romm (born June 27, 1960) is an American author, blogger, lecturer and scientist, who concentrates on solutions related to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and global warming and increasing energy security through energy efficiency, green energy technologies and green transportation technologies."[1]

Romm is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he maintains their climate blog, ClimateProgress.org. TIME magazine named Romm's blog one of the "Top 15 Green Websites".[2] Romm is also the executive director and founder of the non-profit Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, which helps businesses and U.S. States adopt high-leverage strategies for saving energy and cutting pollution and greenhouse gas emissions[3] and is a principal of the Capital E Group, an energy technology consultant. Romm also writes regularly for a number of energy and news websites.

In the 1990s, Romm served as Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. Romm has published several books on global warming and energy technology. Technology Review wrote that his December 2006 book, Hell and High Water, "provides an accurate summary of what is known about global warming and climate change, a sensible agenda for technology and policy, and a primer on how political disinformation has undermined climate science."[4]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

Romm was born and grew up in Middletown, New York, the youngest of three sons of Al Romm, was a newspaper editor,[5] and Ethel Grodzins Romm, an author and a retired engineer and technology company executive.[6] Romm's brother David is the host of Shockwave Radio Theater, and his brother Daniel is a physician. Romm graduated from Middletown High School in 1978. He then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1982 and a Ph.D. in 1987, both in physics.[7] He pursued part of his graduate work at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.[8] In 1987, Romm was awarded an American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellowship and provided science and security policy advice on the staff of Representative Charles E. Bennett.

From 1988 to 1990, Romm worked as Special Assistant for International Security at the Rockefeller Foundation. From 1991 to 1993, he was a researcher at the Rocky Mountain Institute. He co-authored the 1994 Rocky Mountain Institute Report, Greening the Building and the Bottom Line: Increasing Productivity Through Energy-Efficient Design.[9] For the Global Environment and Technology Foundation, he performed the first environmental analysis of a system integrating cogenerating fuel cells, fly wheels, and power electronics aimed at achieving very high-availability power.[10] In 1990 and 1991, Romm taught a course entitled "Rethinking National Security" at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in 2000 and 2001.[11]

In 1992, Romm published The Once and Future Superpower, a book describing his views on how to spend the peace dividend to restore America's economic, energy and environmental security.[12] In 1993, he wrote Defining National Security: The Nonmilitary Aspects, for the Council on Foreign Relations, describing how America's security depends on non-military factors such as how it obtains energy.[13] In 1994, Romm published Lean and Clean Management, a book that discussed management techniques that can reduce the impact of manufacturing and other industries on the environment while increasing productivity and profits).[14][15] He co-authored, with Charles Curtis, "MidEast Oil Forever," the cover story of the April 1996 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, which predicted higher oil prices within a decade and discussed alternative energy strategies. In 1999, Romm published Cool Companies: How the Best Businesses Boost Profits and Productivity by Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions, the first book to benchmark corporate best practices for using advanced energy technologies, including fuel cells, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.[16][17]

[edit] Service at the U.S. Department of Energy

Romm served as Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, in charge of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy during 1997 and as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary from August 1995 though June 1998, and Special Assistant for Policy and Planning from 1993 to July 1995. This Office is the largest research and development program in the world, with a budget at the time of $1 billion and 550 employees, that assists businesses in the industrial, utility, transportation and buildings sectors to develop and use advanced clean energy technologies to cut costs, increase reliability, and reduce pollution.[3]

As Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Romm was in charge of all policy and technology analysis and programmatic development for the Office, which was then developing PEM fuel cells, microturbines, advanced cogeneration, superconductivity, building controls, photovoltaics and other renewables, biofuels, and hydrogen production and storage. Among other projects, he initiated, supervised, and publicized a comprehensive technical analysis by five national laboratories of how energy technologies can best reduce greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively, entitled Scenarios of U.S. Carbon Reductions.[10][18]

[edit] Recent years

Since leaving the Department of Energy, Romm has written widely on global warming and energy technologies that can reduce global warming. His 2004 book, The Hype about Hydrogen argues that putting off the implementation of current green technologies in favor of waiting for technological breakthroughs in hydrogen cars is a dangerous distraction that will delay urgently-needed government action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The book was named one of the best science and technology books of 2004 by Library Journal.[1] In 2004, he also wrote the National Commission on Energy Policy's report, "The Car and Fuel of the Future" and[19] was the principal investigator for the National Science Foundation project, Future Directions for Hydrogen Energy Research and Education (2004).[10]

Romm's 2006 book Hell and High Water, claims that humans have a window of opportunity of only about a decade to head off the most catastrophic effects of global warming and calls upon Americans to demand government action to require the use of current emission-cutting technologies.[20] Romm has testified several times before congressional committees on energy and global warming issues, including his views on government action to curb global warming.[21] On September 5, 2007, Romm testified before the Committee on Science and Technology of the U.S. House of Representatives on the subject of "Fuels for the Future", specifically the use of liquid fuel from coal, which Romm believes would accelerate global warming.[22]

Romm is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress[23] where he maintains their climate blog.[24] In April 2008, TIME magazine named Romm's blog one of the "Top 15 Green Websites", writing that it

"counters bad science and inane rhetoric with original analysis delivered sharply.... Romm occupies the intersection of climate science, economics and policy. Resist temptation to lump him in with knee-jerk enviros. On his blog and in his most recent book, Hell and High Water, you can find some of the most cogent, memorable, and deployable arguments for immediate and overwhelming action to confront global warming."[2]

Romm also writes for a number of other top internet energy and news sites, including The Huffington Post,[25] Cleantechcollective,[26] Grist,[27] Slate[28] and Salon.com[29]

Romm is the executive director and founder of the non-profit Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, an organization based in the Washington DC area that helps businesses and U.S. States adopt high-leverage strategies for saving energy and cutting pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, he is a principal of the Capital E Group,[30] which consults on technology assessment and sustainable design services for clean energy technologies.[3] Romm is also on the Board of Securing America's Future Energy.[1]

Romm lectures frequently on energy technology and global warming[31] and is often quoted or interviewed by journalists to explain the impact of public policy and energy technologies and applications on global warming and energy security.[32] Romm was interviewed on Fox News in 2007[33][34] about the new IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on climate change, and on his views of global warming politics and solutions. Romm is also interviewed in the 2006 documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car?, directed by Chris Paine and narrated by Martin Sheen. In the film, Romm gives a presentation intended to show that the government's "hydrogen car initiative" is a bad policy choice and a distraction that is delaying the exploitation of more promising technologies, like electric and hybrid cars that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase America's energy security. In 2006, in a radio interview, Romm stated, "Global warming is going to transform this country and our transportation and the way we live our lives. If we don't act pretty soon, in an intelligent fashion, then change will be forced upon us by the radically changed climate... global warming is the issue of the century...."[35]

[edit] Personal

Romm lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and daughter.

[edit] Publications

In addition to his books and other publications discussed above, Romm has written or co-written numerous articles and lectured widely on distributed energy, clean technologies, business and environment issues and global warming. His articles have been published in Technology Review,[36] Issues in Science and Technology,[37] Forbes,[38] Foreign Affairs,[39] The New York Times,[40] the L.A. Times, The Washington Post, Science,[41] Scientific American[42], Physics Today[43] and Businessweek,[44] among other publications.

Romm and Prof. Andrew A. Frank co-authored "Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction", published in the April 2006 issue of Scientific American, in which they argue that hybrid cars that can be plugged into the electric grid (Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) will be introduced in the next few years and will become standard in the automobile industry in the coming decades.[42] In March 2007, Romm and Peter Fox-Penner published an article entitled "Plugging into the Grid, How Plug-In Hybrid-Electric Vehicles Can Help Break America's Oil Addiction and Slow Global Warming" in the Progressive Policy Institute's Policy Report newsletter.[45]

[edit] Books by Romm

  • Romm, Joseph (2006). Hell and High Water: Global Warming—the Solution and the Politics—and What We Should Do. New York: William Morrow.  (ISBN 0-06117-212-X).
  • Romm, Joseph (2004). The Hype about Hydrogen, Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate. New York: Island Press.  (ISBN 1-55963-703-X). An updated edition was published in 2005 (ISBN 1-55963-704-8). The book has also been translated into German as Der Wasserstoff-boom.
  • Romm, Joseph (1999). Cool Companies: How the Best Businesses Boost Profits and Productivity by Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions. New York: Island Press.  (ISBN 1-55963-709-9).
  • Romm, Joseph (1994). Lean and Clean Management: How to Boost Profits and Productivity by Reducing Pollution. New York: Kodansha Amer Inc.  (ISBN 1-56836-037-1).
  • Romm, Joseph (1993). Defining National Security: The Nonmilitary Aspects. Washington: Council on Foreign Relations.  (ISBN 0-87609-135-4).
  • Romm, Joseph (1992). The Once and Future Superpower: How to Restore America's Economic, Energy, and Environmental Security. New York: William Morrow & Co.  (ISBN 0-688-11868-2).

[edit] Selected peer-reviewed articles

  • "The Car and Fuel of the Future," Energy Policy, 2005
  • "Future Directions for Hydrogen Energy Research and Education" (Principal Investigator), Report to the National Science Foundation, November 2004
  • "The internet and the new energy economy", Resources, Conservation and Recycling, p. 36 (2002) pp. 197-210
  • "Combined Heat and Power for Saving Energy and Carbon in Buildings" (with Kaarsberg, Koomey, Rosenfeld, and Teagen), Proceedings of 1998 ACEEE Summer Study, Pacific Grove, CA, 1999
  • "Engineering-Economic Studies of Energy Technologies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Opportunities and Challenges" (with Brown, Levine, Rosenfeld, and Koomey), Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, 1998
  • "A Roadmap for U.S. Carbon Reductions" (with Levine, Brown, and Petersen), Science, January 30, 1998; "Cool Communities: Strategies for Heat Island Mitigation and Smog Reduction" (with Rosenfeld, Akbari, and Pomerantz), Energy and Buildings 28 (1998) pp. 51–62
  • "Scenarios of U.S. Carbon Reductions: Potential Impacts of Energy Technologies by 2010 and Beyond", Interlaboratory Working Group, (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, September 1997)
  • "Greening the Building and the Bottom Line: Increasing Productivity Through Energy-Efficient Design" (with Browning), Rocky Mountain Institute, November 1994 (peer-reviewed by U.S. Green Building Council)
  • "Greening the Building and the Bottom Line: Increasing Productivity Through Energy-Efficient Design" (with Browning), Proceedings of 1994 ACEEE Summer Study, Pacific Grove, CA

[edit] Criticism

Romm questioned whether global warming may have played a part in the I-35 bridge collapse in August 2007.[46] This was criticized by Robert Ferguson in his blog for the Science and Public Policy Institute (a global warming skeptic organization), which contended that the temperature trend in the Minneapolis area has been flat for many decades, and temperatures in the months before the collapse did not approach record values.[47] Romm responded to the criticism in October 2007, quoting engineers in Minneapolis who worked on the old bridge and were working on the replacement bridge, writing "...federal authorities are examining whether intense heat on Aug. 1 triggered a chain reaction of force that overpowered gusset plates in crucial locations.... Does this mean climate change contributed to the Minneapolis bridge collapse? We don’t know the final answer to that yet, but it certainly seems now like it was a not unreasonable question to ask after all."[46]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Romm's profile at The Foundation for Nuclear Studies
  2. ^ a b Time.com feature on "Top 15 Green Websites"
  3. ^ a b c Romm profile at Cleanhouston.org
  4. ^ Technology Review article of March 12, 2007
  5. ^ Al Romm was managing editor of the Times Herald-Record newspaper from the 1950s into the 1980s. See obituary.
  6. ^ See E. G. Romm's books in print and Article on tech company where she was President.
  7. ^ Abstract of Romm's Ph.D. dissertation
  8. ^ Romm's testimony before the U. S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming, p. 6, July 18, 2007
  9. ^ Link to Rocky Mountain Inst. report
  10. ^ a b c Romm bio at Buildings.com
  11. ^ School of International and Public Affiars Faculty Directory, 1989–1990 and 1990–1991
  12. ^ Romm, Joseph (1992). The Once and Future Superpower: How to Restore America's Economic, Energy, and Environmental Security. New York: William Morrow & Co.  (ISBN 0-688-11868-2)
  13. ^ Romm, Joseph (1993). Defining National Security: The Nonmilitary Aspects. Washington: Council on Foreign Relations.  (ISBN 0-87609-135-4)
  14. ^ Review of Lean and Clean Management
  15. ^ Wernick, Iddo K. "Book Review, Lean and Clean Management, Romm, J.", International Journal of Environment and Pollution 5(2/3):314-6 1995
  16. ^ Information about Romm's book, Cool Companies
  17. ^ Reviews of Cool Companies can be found here and here.
  18. ^ Report generated by The Five Lab Study
  19. ^ The Car and Fuel of the Future (July 2004)
  20. ^ See Publisher webpage, and Review of the book.
  21. ^ See, for example, his September 21, 2000 testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, his March 3, 2004 testimony before the House Science Committee and his testimony before the U. S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming, July 18, 2007.
  22. ^ Romm's September 2007 testimony before Congress
  23. ^ Romm bio at www.americanprogress.org
  24. ^ Romm's climate blog at ClimateProgress.org
  25. ^ Romm's profile as a blogger for The Huffington Post
  26. ^ Romm article in Cleantechcollective
  27. ^ April 2008 Romm article in Grist
  28. ^ October 2007 article by Romm in Slate
  29. ^ Romm's recent Salon.com articles include "Let's dump Earth Day", April 22, 2008; "The technology that will save humanity", April 14, 2008; "The cold truth about climate change", February 27, 2008; "The car of the future is here", January 22, 2008; and "Desperate times, desperate scientists", December 12, 2007
  30. ^ Capital E Group website
  31. ^ See, e.g., "Energy Symposium: The Rosenfeld Effect" April 28, 2006 and "Climate Expert to Discuss Global Warming Solutions", Yale University, September 18, 2006.
  32. ^ See, for example, this 2007 Associated Press article dated May 24, 2007; This radio interview on This Week in Science, April 26, 2005; this March 2006 interview on Earth and Sky Radio Series; and this radio interview dated December 16, 2005 on Global Public Media.
  33. ^ Romm's January 31, 2007 Fox News segment is accessible here. See also Romm radio interview accessible here.
  34. ^ YouTube clip of Romm on Fox News, March 12, 2007
  35. ^ Quote from interview
  36. ^ Articles in Technology Review: "Greenhouse Gas" (review of Michael Crichton's State of Fear) May 2005; "Painting the Town White and Green” (with Rosenfeld, Akbari, and Lloyd), February/March 1997; and "The Benefits of Lean and Clean", February/March 1995
  37. ^ "The Hype about Hydrogen", Issues in Science and Technology, Spring 2004
  38. ^ Forbes articles: "Japan's Flying Geese", November 23, 1992 and "The Gospel According to Sun Tzu", December 9, 1991
  39. ^ "Fueling a Competitive Economy" (with Amory Lovins), Winter 1992 in Foreign Affairs
  40. ^ "Fix Now, Save Later", New York Times, January 11, 1993
  41. ^ "A Road Map for U.S. Carbon Reductions" (with Mark Levine, Marilyn Brown, and Eric Petersen) in Science magazine, January 30, 1998
  42. ^ a b "Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction" (Scientific American, 2007) and "The Verification of Compliance with Arms-Control Agreements” (with Hafemeister and Tsipis) (March 1985), pp. 39-45
  43. ^ "Technologies to Reduce U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions by 2010" (with Rosenfeld and Kaarsberg) Physics Today, November 2000
  44. ^ Businessweek online article by Romm on Hurricane Katrina and global warming
  45. ^ "Plugging into the Grid", March 2007
  46. ^ a b Romm October 22, 2007 recap of the Bridge Collapse issue
  47. ^ Robert Ferguson blog re: Minnesota bridge collapse

[edit] References

[edit] External links