AISI To Explore Climate Change Issue at 2007 General Meeting

The climate change debate has shifted from science to economics. With regulations aimed at reducing climate change looming on the horizon, the question becomes: What will be advanced at a policy level to achieve significant results while keeping domestic manufacturers globally competitive? AISI will explore all sides of this issue during a panel discussion at its 115th General Meeting, which will be held May 6-8 at The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, Nevada. From clean energy, voluntary, technology-based solutions to cap & trade approaches, the issue is hot and getting hotter. AISI has invited a distinguished panel of experts to debate the Climate Change issue. Panelists include: Phil Sharp, president of Resources for the Future; Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at Competitive Enterprise Institute; and Kelly Mader, vice president of state government relations at Peabody Energy. The moderator for this panel will be Bill Heenan, president, Steel Recycling Institute (SRI).

The session, "Climate Change: Can Good Environmental Stewards Survive?," will take place from 9:00 - 10:15 am on Tuesday, May 8, in an AISI general session immediately following the AISI Chairman's Address and Recognition Breakfast (featuring newly installed AISI Chairman Ward J. (Tim) Timken, chairman of The Timken Company). AISI is holding its Annual Meeting in conjunction with the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) for the fourth year. AISI is opening this climate change session to attendees from both organizations-which have some overlapping members. MSCI is holding a concurrent general session for the MSCI Chairman's Address and its awards ceremony.

About the Panel: Phil Sharp became president of Resources for the Future (RFF) on September 1, 2005. His career in public service includes 10 terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana, and a lengthy tenure on the faculty of the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Institute of Politics at Harvard University.

Founded in 1952 as an independent and nonpartisan research institution, RFF is the oldest Washington think tank devoted exclusively to policy analysis on energy, environmental, and natural resource issues. Sharp leads a research and administrative staff of more than 80 persons and oversees an institutional endowment of nearly $70 million.

Sharp was congressional chair of the National Commission on Energy Policy, a panel established by the Hewlett Foundation and other major foundations to make energy policy recommendations to the federal government. The commission issued its findings in a major report that has been widely recognized as a comprehensive roadmap for future energy policy, receiving considerable attention from Congress during the recent debate over the 2005 Energy Policy Act.

During his 20-year congressional tenure, Sharp took key leadership roles in the development of landmark energy legislation. He was a driving force behind the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which led to the restructuring of the wholesale electricity market, promoted renewable energy, established more rigorous energy-efficiency standards, and encouraged expanded use of alternative fuels. He also helped to develop a critical part of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, providing for a market-based emissions allowance trading system.

Sharp served on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he chaired the Fossil and Synthetic Fuels Subcommittee from 1981 to 1987 and the Energy and Power Subcommittee from 1987 to 1995. He also was a member of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, where he served on the Energy and Environment Subcommittee and the Water and Power Resources Subcommittee.

After leaving Congress, Sharp was a member of the National Research Council's Committee on Effectiveness and Impact of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards, which issued its report in 2001. He chaired the Secretary of Energy's Electric Systems Reliability Task Force, which issued its report in 1998.

Sharp serves on the board of directors of the Energy Foundation, is co-chair of the Energy Board of the Keystone Center, and is a member of the National Research Council's Board of Energy and Environmental Systems. He headed the advisory committee for a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study on the future of nuclear power and now heads the advisory committee of a second study on the future of coal.

Myron Ebell is director of energy and global warming policy at CEI. He also chairs the Cooler Heads Coalition, which comprises over two dozen non-profit groups in this country and abroad that question "global warming alarmism" and oppose energy rationing policies. Prior to coming to CEI, Ebell was policy director at Frontiers of Freedom, a public-policy advocacy organization founded by former US Senator Malcolm Wallop. While at Frontiers of Freedom, he worked on property rights, the Endangered Species Act, federal-lands policies, and global warming. Ebell has testified before six House and Senate committees.

Ebell has appeared as a guest on numerous television shows, including the NBC Nightly News, PBS News Hour, BBC's Newsnight, CNN, C-SPAN, CNBC, MSNBC's Hardball, Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, and O'Reilly Factor, and on national television networks in Australia, Canada, France, Belgium, Greece, Switzerland, and Germany. He has appeared frequently on a variety of BBC radio news shows and on hundreds of radio talk shows. In 2005 he participated in a BBC World Television debate on the Kyoto Protocol. Mr. Ebell's writings have appeared in a variety of publications, including USA Today, Washington Post, Human Events, London's Guardian and Environmental Law Forum.

Among numerous recognitions, Greenpeace featured Ebell and three of his CEI colleagues in "A Field Guide to Climate Criminals" distributed at the UN climate meeting in Montreal in December 2005. Rolling Stone magazine in its November 17, 2005 issue named Mr. Ebell one of six "Misleaders" on global warming in a special feature, along with President Bush, Senator James Inhofe, and Michael Crichton.

Kelly Mader is responsible for directing and coordinating statewide and regional legislative acitivities relating to coal production and coal utilization for Peabody Energy of St. Louis. Prior to his position as vice president for Peabody Energy, he was general manager for government affairs for Rio Tinto / Kennecott Energy Company for five years and a director of government and public affairs prior to that. He was a Wyoming State Senator from 1984 to 1991 and principal of a Denver-based policy consulting group for seven years.

Mader is private sector chairman for the American Legislative Exchange Council Natural Resources Task Force. He also served as chairman of the Western Business Roundtable Energy Committee and Co-Chairman of the National Mining Association Energy Policy Task Force.

Bill Heenan serves as the president of SRI, a business unit of AISI. He assumed the position in October 1990, following nearly two years of service as chairman of the board for the Institute. In this position, he oversees the activities of the organization, which conducts recycling infrastructure, legislative, marketing, education and public relations programs to promote and sustain steel recycling throughout the United States and Canada.

Prior to assuming this current position, Heenan was general manager, Tin Mill Products, for United States Steel Corporation, a position to which he was appointed in 1988. Heenan is a member of several organizations; is a lifetime board member of the National Recycling Coalition (NRC); is a board member of Keep America Beautiful, Inc.; and is the co-chairperson of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful. At the 2004 National Recycling Coalition's Congress & Exposition in San Francisco, Heenan was named "Recycler of the Year."

The AISI 2007 General Meeting's general sessions will begin at 8:00 am on Monday, May 7, at The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Las Vegas, in Henderson, Nevada. For more information, contact Liz Vago.