Bipartisan energy group closes up shop, new venture planned

A bipartisan coalition of energy policy heavyweights that helped shape major legislation in 2005 and 2007 — but failed to convince Congress to cap greenhouse gases — is ending its run.

The National Commission on Energy Policy (NCEP) announced Tuesday that it is dissolving after eight years, although the think tank that houses it — the Bipartisan Policy Center — is planning a new energy venture.

“NCEP had many accomplishments, including significant influence on the landmark 2005 and 2007 energy bills,” said NCEP co-chairman William K. Reilly, who led the Environmental Protection Agency under former President George H.W. Bush, in a statement.

“At a time of passionate disagreements, the NCEP model of inclusive membership, top quality research staff, and timely engagement of issues before they were ripe for decision, proved confidence-building and highly effective. The habit of mutual respect in deliberations didn't hurt either,” he added.

Echoes of the group’s recommendations — in areas such as auto efficiency standards, carbon capture research, hybrid car incentives and appliance efficiency — are found in the big energy bills signed into law in 2005 and 2007.

Its two-dozen-plus past and present members include co-chairman John Rowe, CEO of utility powerhouse Exelon Corp; former co-chairman John Holdren, who was a top Harvard professor before becoming President Obama’s science adviser; co-chairwoman Susan Tierney, who was a senior Energy Department official in the Clinton administration and played a key energy role on Obama’s transition team; and others with deep ties to Capitol Hill, the White House and industry and green groups.

The group called for a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gases in a major 2004 report and later in 2007 recommendations to Congress, but it didn’t happen.

“NCEP labored mightily to develop market-based approaches to deal with energy and climate issues,” Rowe said in a statement. “Its work was important even if not all of its recommendations carried the day.”

The commission formed in 2002 with a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

The Bipartisan Policy Center — which was founded by a quartet of former Senate majority leaders including Bob Dole (R) and George Mitchell (D) – is now crafting a new energy project.

The still-forming venture comes as various corporations, interest groups and others are scrambling to influence the energy policy landscape in the wake of cap-and-trade’s collapse in Congress this year.

“We had a great run,” said Jason Grumet, the president of the Bipartisan Policy Center who also directed the energy commission. “The 2010 energy debate demonstrated the nation’s changing politics and priorities. In 2011, the BPC will launch a new effort that will engage both parties’ desire for secure, clean and low-cost energy.”

In coming weeks, the center will “meet with stakeholders, Members of Congress, the Administration, leading experts and NGOs to solidify its plans for a major new energy project,” it said Tuesday.

The dissolving NCEP, meanwhile, drew praise from the leadership of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In a letter to Grumet Friday, Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and top Republican Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the group’s “substantive expertise” and ability to foster “constructive dialogue” across the aisle helped to shape the panel's work.

“NCEP’s leadership bringing together a bipartisan and institutionally diverse group to develop and advocate detailed policy recommendations has been of great relevance to this Committee,” Bingaman and Murkowski wrote.