Energy Future Coalition

In late 2001, with the support of the Turner Foundation and Better World Fund, the Energy Future Coalition held exploratory meetings to discuss the inadequacies in U.S. energy policy. These meetings were focused on addressing our dependence on foreign oil and the associated risk to our economy and national security, the neglected threat of climate change, and the need to bring electricity and modern fuels to the 2 billion people who lack them.

A consensus emerged on the need for change, and on the opportunity to present a new vision that linked security, environment, and economics for a more sustainable future. Over the next six months, more than 150 individuals from business, labor, government, academia, and the NGO community came together to create a compelling new vision of what the energy economy could become, and to identify policy changes that would spark a revolution in energy technology.

The Coalition focused on practical political coalition building, aimed at breaking the gridlock along partisan lines that had previously prevented substantive advances in energy policy. The Coalition created 6 Working Groups of diverse participants that participated in a 9 month effort to identify a new path forward. These working groups presented recommendations in the areas of Transportation, Bioenergy and Agriculture, The Future of Coal, End-Use Efficiency, The Smart Grid, and Innovative Financing. The original recommendations formulated by the Working Groups can be found in the 2003 report, Challenges and Opportunities: Charting America's Energy Future.

Elements of the Coalition's recommendations were included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005). Although the bill failed to make dramatic progress in reducing oil dependence and mitigating climate change, it was a step in the right direction and reflected the Coalition's success at changing the debate around energy.

Building on the Coalition's Bioenergy and Agriculture Working Group, a group of agriculture and forestry leaders developed the "25 by 25" vision, which states that America should produce 25% of its energy from renewable resources by 2025. In the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 Congress endorsed 25x'25 as a goal for the nation.

In 2007, the Coalition began working at the state level on the cheapest and fastest way to meet our energy needs -- energy efficiency. Part of this work will also focus on creating a "smart grid" for the United States that will be more flexible, stable, and efficient. To learn more about these efforts, click here.