Purdue News

August 29, 2006

Industry, C-SPAN leaders energize Lugar-Purdue summit

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.— The chairman and president of BP America Inc. was part of a blue-ribbon panel moderated by the head of C-SPAN as part of an energy summit convened by U.S. Sen. Richard G. Lugar and Purdue University.

Joining BP America Inc. chairman and president Robert A. Malone as part of the Aug. 29 panel discussion at the Richard G. Lugar-Purdue Summit on Energy Security was Amy Myers Jaffe, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University. Brian Lamb, president and CEO of C-SPAN, served as the panel moderator. The summit, which took place on Purdue's West Lafayette campus, attracted leaders from government, business and academic communities.

Panelists discussed what would be needed from an industry and policy perspective to implement strategies that would reduce foreign oil dependence.

"Our nation's security and prosperity are tied directly to energy, and Indiana has much to offer in the biofuel and research areas," said Lugar, R-Ind., who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "This summit gave us the opportunity to share ideas from a broad spectrum of individuals representing the public and private sectors and help chart our course for the future."

Purdue President Martin C. Jischke, who was recently named to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, said Purdue has made energy a major subject of research.

"Purdue has worked to create an environment in which energy researchers from all disciplines are collaborating to find and develop alternative energy sources and policies and to make current energy sources cleaner and more efficient," Jischke said. "The research at Purdue is exploring a number of energy alternatives, including biofuels, liquid fuels, clean-coal technologies and others."

Robert A. Malone
Malone serves as BP's chief executive in the United States. He is based in Houston, where nearly 7,000 BP employees work. His company is involved in oil and gas exploration and production, refining, chemicals, supply and trading, pipeline operations, shipping and alternative energy. Prior to his current position, he served as chief executive of BP Shipping Ltd., where he was responsible for the energy industry's largest oil and natural gas fleet.

He earned a degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso and was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a master's degree in management. He is a member of the Executive Committee of Oil Companies International Marine Forum and a board member of the UK Chamber of Shipping.

Amy Myers Jaffe
Myers Jaffe, in addition to being the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies, is president of AMJ Energy Consulting. The James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University houses a multidisciplinary program that focuses on energy technologies, environmental implications of energy production and use and sustainable strategies for meeting the world's energy needs.

She previously served as senior economist and Middle East analyst for Petroleum Intelligence Weekly. She is a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Dow Jones International, Associated Press news stories and MidEast Report. She earned a bachelor's degree in Arabic studies from Princeton University.

Brian Lamb
Lamb helped found C-SPAN, the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network that reaches 86 million households around the world. He is a Lafayette, Ind., native who graduated from Purdue with a major in speech in 1963. After joining the U.S. Navy, Lamb worked for President Lyndon Johnson's administration and for the Pentagon public affairs office during the Vietnam War. He helped develop C-SPAN in 1977 as a not-for-profit company and built one of Washington, D.C.'s first satellite uplinks. The channel televised its first session of the U.S. House of Representatives to 3.5 million cable households in 1979.

Lamb moderated the series "Booknotes" and taped more than 600 nonfiction author interviews. He also has published three books based on the series.

Also speaking at the summit was U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee.

The energy summit program chair was Wallace Tyner, Purdue professor of agricultural economics. Tyner does research in energy economics, and his past work has encompassed oil, natural gas, coal, oil shale, biomass, ethanol from agricultural sources and solar energy. Tyner also has worked on agricultural trade and policy issues with developing countries in the Middle East and North and West Africa. He has extensive overseas experience in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, India and Morocco.

Writers: Cynthia Sequin, (765) 494-4192, csequin@purdue.edu

Mike Lillich, (765) 494-2077, mlillich@purdue.edu

Source: Wallace Tyner, (765) 494-0199, wtyner@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

 

Note to Journalists: Journalists may receive news credentials to cover the summit by contacting Cynthia Sequin, Purdue News Service, (765) 494-4192, csequin@purdue.edu

 

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