Energy & Environment: Markey Wants Answers on Rare Earths
• Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., "is pressing the Obama administration for information about alleged Chinese restrictions on the export of rare earth minerals used in defense and energy technologies, warning of threats to U.S. interests," The Hill reports.
• "Three months after BP capped its runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico, the state of Louisiana is still building a chain of sand berms off its coast to block and capture oil even as federal officials and many scientists argue that the effort will prove pointless," the New York Times reports.
• An Idaho couple has "sued the state to stop the shipments by Imperial Oil and ConocoPhillips" to an oil sands site in Canada, "arguing that the" truck loads delivered there "would threaten the integrity of Idaho's historic portion of U.S. 12, as well as the safety of communities that depend on it as the main road in and out of the area," the Times also reports. "National environmental groups and climate change activists are supporting their efforts, seeing a broader opportunity to stall development of Canada's oil sands, which they denounce as a dirty source of energy. "
• "Combating climate change has long taken a back seat to coal production in West Virginia, but in the hard-fought House race in this state's 1st district, global warming hasn't even made it onto the bus," The Hill reports. "In interviews on Thursday, both the Democratic and Republican nominees for Congress voiced skepticism of the science behind global warming, and the Republican, David McKinley, flatly called concerns about climate change 'an attack on coal.'"
Contributor
Richard L. Kauffman
Biography provided by participant
Richard Kauffman joined the U.S. Department of Energy in September 2011, as a Senior Advisor to Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
Prior to joining the Department, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Good Energies, Inc., a leading investor in renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Richard was also a partner of Goldman Sachs where he chaired the Global Financing Group and served as a member of the firm's Partnership Committee, Commitments Committee and Investment Banking Division Operating Committee. Before joining Goldman Sachs, he served as vice chairman of Morgan Stanley's Institutional Securities Business and co-head of its Banking Department.
Richard has also served as the chairman of the board of Levi Strauss & Co., as well as on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including the Brookings Institution and the Foreign Policy Association. He has been a lecturer in finance and financial accounting at the Yale School of Management and a teaching fellow in foreign policy at Yale College. Richard is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Richard earned a bachelor's degree in history from Stanford University, a master's degree in international relations from Yale University and a master's in public and private management from the Yale School of Management.
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