April - June 1999 Issue


News Items, April - June 1999

Paul L. Joskow has been named to succeed Richard Schmalensee as director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR) as of July 1. Professor Schmalensee, who has been director of the CEEPR for the past eight years, became dean of the Sloan School of Management in November 1998. Professor Joskow is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics and Management in the Department of Economics and at Sloan, and he was also head of the Department of Economics from 1994 to 1998. He specializes in the economics of government regulation, industrial organization, and competition policy and is well known for his research on restructuring, privatization, and deregulation of electric power sectors and on the use of market-based mechanisms to control pollution. The CEEPR, a joint center of the Sloan School, the Department of Economics, and the Energy Laboratory, seeks to provide stable financial support for empirically grounded economic research at MIT on issues related to energy and environmental policy and to introduce the results to the decisionmaking processes of government and industry. The CEEPR is widely recognized as one of the world's leading sources of scholarship on sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions trading, electricity sector competition, privatization, and regulatory reform.

On April 29-30, the CEEPR held its spring workshop. Topics included electric power transmission congestion and pricing, low oil prices, interfuel substitution in Europe, natural gas pipeline capacity and storage markets, the 1998 SO₂ allowance price spike, and the creation and use of weather derivatives. Attendees included 68 representatives from industry, government, and academia. Guest speakers were John B. Heywood, Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory, who discussed more efficient vehicles, and Roberto Rigobon, assistant professor of applied economics in the Sloan School of Management, who discussed the future of the Venezuelan economy.

Anne M. Mayes, associate professor of polymer physics in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, recently received the 1999 John H. Dillon Medal, awarded by the American Physical Society (APS) Division of High Polymer Physics. This medal is awarded annually to recognize outstanding research accomplishments by a polymer physicist who has demonstrated exceptional research promise early in his or her career. Professor Mayes was cited for "her unique combination of theoretical and experimental insight into polymer self-organization." The Dillon Medal was presented following a symposium held in her honor at the APS centennial conference in Atlanta. Professor Mayes leads a team of Energy Laboratory researchers who are developing self-organizing polymer electrolytes and other novel materials for a new lithium solid polymer battery (see e-lab, July-December 1996).

Elisabeth M. Drake, associate director of the Energy Laboratory and fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), was a featured speaker at a Capital Hill briefing on the "Technology Implications of the Kyoto Protocol" on February 12. According to an article in the April 1999 issue of AIChExtra, the briefing was held "to educate congressional staff and other policymakers on the prospects for reducing greenhouse gas emissions using current and anticipated technologies." As described in AIChExtra, Dr. Drake discussed three technology paths for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), the primary greenhouse gas: promotion of energy efficiency; decarbonization of the energy supply; and capture and sequestration of CO₂ emissions. She called on the policymakers to focus on technology breakthroughs, changes to energy use, and education of the public about the problem. Deeming existing technologies inadequate to meet the Kyoto requirements, she called for a program of sustained federal R&D investment to develop affordable new technologies (including low-cost renewables, integrated heat and power systems, carbon sequestration technologies, and a new generation of nuclear power plants) that can substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The briefing attracted about 65 congressional staff members, journalists, and scientific and engineering society representatives. Sponsors were the AIChE, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Association of Engineering Societies.