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[[Image:JRommsm.jpg|right|thumb|Joseph Romm, 2007]]'''Dr. Joseph J. Romm''' was born on [[June 27]] [[1960]] in [[Middletown, Orange County, New York|Middletown, New York]]. Romm is an author, blogger, lecturer, and scientist, who has concentrated on problems related to [[global warming]], [[energy efficiency]], [[green energy]] technologies and green transportation technologies. Romm is "one of the world’s leading experts on [[clean energy]], advanced vehicles, [[energy security]], and [[greenhouse gas]] mitigation."<ref>[http://www.nuclearfoundation.org/rommbio.html From Romm's profile at The Foundation for Nuclear Studies]</ref> Romm's father, Al Romm, was an editor, including of the [[Times Herald-Record]] newspaper from the 1950s into the 1980s.<ref>[http://www.romm.org/obit.html Al Romm obituary]</ref> His mother, Ethel Grodzins Romm, is an author and a retired engineer and technology company executive.<ref>See [http://www.amazon.com/s?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dblended&keywords=Ethel+Romm E. G. Romm's books in print] and [http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1995/lead-1213.html Article on tech company]</ref>
[[Image:JRommsm.jpg|right|thumb|Joseph Romm, 2007]]'''Dr. Joseph J. Romm''' was born on [[June 27]] [[1960]] in [[Middletown, Orange County, New York|Middletown, New York]]. Romm is an author, blogger, lecturer, and scientist, who has concentrated on problems related to [[global warming]], [[energy efficiency]], [[green energy]] technologies and green transportation technologies. According to his self-written bio, Romm is "one of the world’s leading experts on [[clean energy]], advanced vehicles, [[energy security]], and [[greenhouse gas]] mitigation."<ref>[http://www.nuclearfoundation.org/rommbio.html From Romm's profile at The Foundation for Nuclear Studies]</ref> Romm's father, Al Romm, was an editor, including of the [[Times Herald-Record]] newspaper from the 1950s into the 1980s.<ref>[http://www.romm.org/obit.html Al Romm obituary]</ref> His mother, Ethel Grodzins Romm, is an author and a retired engineer and technology company executive.<ref>See [http://www.amazon.com/s?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dblended&keywords=Ethel+Romm E. G. Romm's books in print] and [http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1995/lead-1213.html Article on tech company]</ref>


Romm holds B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in [[physics]] from [[M.I.T.]] Romm is married and has one child.
Romm holds B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in [[physics]] from [[M.I.T.]] Romm is married and has one child.

Revision as of 22:20, 13 April 2008

Joseph Romm, 2007

Dr. Joseph J. Romm was born on June 27 1960 in Middletown, New York. Romm is an author, blogger, lecturer, and scientist, who has concentrated on problems related to global warming, energy efficiency, green energy technologies and green transportation technologies. According to his self-written bio, Romm is "one of the world’s leading experts on clean energy, advanced vehicles, energy security, and greenhouse gas mitigation."[1] Romm's father, Al Romm, was an editor, including of the Times Herald-Record newspaper from the 1950s into the 1980s.[2] His mother, Ethel Grodzins Romm, is an author and a retired engineer and technology company executive.[3]

Romm holds B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from M.I.T. Romm is married and has one child.

Career

Current and recent projects

Romm is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress[4] and maintains their climate blog.[5] He 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. Romm is also a principal of the Capital E Group,[6] which consults on technology assessment and sustainable design services for clean energy technologies.[7] Romm also blogs for a number of other internet energy and news sites, including The Huffington Post,[8] Cleantechcollective[9] and Slate.[10]

Romm lectures frequently on energy technology and global warming[11] 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.[12] On September 5 2007, Romm testified before the U.S. Congress on the subject of "Fuels for the Future", specifically the use of liquid fuel from coal, which Romm believes would accelerate global warming.[13]

Romm's book on global warming, Hell and High Water, published in December 2006, 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 emission-cutting technologies that are available now.[14] Romm was interviewed on Fox News on January 31, 2007[15] and on March 12, 2007[16] about the book, the new IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on climate change, and global warming politics and solutions.

Romm is interviewed in several segments of 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.

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 1995 though 1998. At the Department of Energy, Romm helped manage the largest program in the world for helping businesses develop and use advanced clean energy and distributed generation technologies to cut costs, increase reliability, and reduce pollution.[7]

The program was aimed at the industrial, utility, transportation, and buildings sectors. The program was the lead federal agency for developing technologies such as PEM fuel cells, microturbines, advanced cogeneration, superconductivity, building controls, photovoltaics and other renewables, biofuels, and hydrogen production and storage. Romm was in charge of technology analysis for the Office, helping to lead the administration's formulation of climate technology policy. 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, nicknamed "The Five Lab Study", formally entitled Scenarios of U.S. Carbon Reductions.[17]

Earlier projects

Romm taught a course entitle "Rethinking National Security" at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in 2000 and 2001. He was the principal investigator for the National Science Foundation project, Future Directions for Hydrogen Energy Research and Education (2004). Earlier, Romm worked as Special Assistant for International Security at the Rockefeller Foundation and as a researcher at the Rocky Mountain Institute. He also performed the first environmental analysis of a system integrating cogenerating fuel cells, fly wheels, and power electronics aimed at achieving very high-availability power.[17]

Publications

In addition to his 2006 book, Hell and High Water, discussed above, Romm has published a number of books on energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions and pollution with green technologies, including The Hype about Hydrogen, 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), Lean and Clean Management, and The Once and Future Superpower, and other topics. He also wrote the National Commission on Energy Policy's report, "The Car and Fuel of the Future," (July 2004)[18]. He also co-authored the 1994 Rocky Mountain Institute Report: Greening the Building and the Bottom Line: Increasing Productivity Through Energy-Efficient Design.[19]

Romm has written and lectured widely on distributed energy, clean technologies, business and environment issues and global warming, including articles in Technology Review, Issues in Science and Technology, Forbes, Foreign Affairs[20], The New York Times, the L.A. Times, Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, Science (journal),[21] Scientific American[22] and Salon.com.[23] He co-authored, with Charles Curtis, "MidEast Oil Forever," the cover story of the April 1996 issue of the Atlantic Monthly that predicted higher oil prices within a decade and discussed alternative energy strategies.

Romm and Prof. Andrew A. Frank co-authored an article, "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.[22] 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.[24]

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).

Quote

"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...." [25]

Notes

  1. ^ From Romm's profile at The Foundation for Nuclear Studies
  2. ^ Al Romm obituary
  3. ^ See E. G. Romm's books in print and Article on tech company
  4. ^ Romm bio at www.americanprogress.org
  5. ^ Romm's climate blog at ClimateProgress.org
  6. ^ Capital E Group website
  7. ^ a b Romm profile at Cleanhouston.org
  8. ^ Romm's profile as a blogger for The Huffington Post
  9. ^ Romm article in Cleantechcollective
  10. ^ October 2007 article by Romm in Slate
  11. ^ [1] [2] Articles on Romm lectures
  12. ^ See, for example, this2007 Associated Press article.
  13. ^ Romm's September 2007 testimony before Congress
  14. ^ See Publisher webpage, and Review of the book.
  15. ^ Romm's January 31, 2007 Fox News segment is accessible here. See also Romm radio interview accessible here.
  16. ^ YouTube clip of Romm on Fox News, March 12, 2007
  17. ^ a b Romm bio at Buildings.com
  18. ^ The Car and Fuel of the Future
  19. ^ Link to Rocky Mountain Inst. report
  20. ^ Energy efficiency article in Foreign Affairs
  21. ^ Article in Science magazine
  22. ^ a b "Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction"
  23. ^ Romm's recent Salon.com articles include "Desperate times, desperate scientists," December 12, 2007; "The car of the future is here," January 22, 2008 and "The cold truth about climate change," February 27, 2008
  24. ^ "Plugging into the Grid", March 2007
  25. ^ Quote from interview

References


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