Assistant Secretary Karsner leads the Administration’s efforts to implement prominent energy initiatives announced by President George W. Bush in consecutive State of the Union Addresses. Mr Karsner spoke at a lunch for the Committee for Melbourne where he outlined the EERE’s dedication to accelerating market penetration of America’s abundant, secure, affordable and clean renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

The Office of EERE’s portfolio covers three main areas – Power Generation, Fuels and Vehicles, and Energy Efficiency.

Since his confirmation by the Senate as America’s ninth Assistant Secretary for EERE, Mr Karsner has managed the nation’s $US1.74 billion ($1.94 billion) federal applied science, research, development, and deployment portfolio, which promotes marketplace integration of renewable and environmentally sound energy technologies.

Mr Karsner is responsible for implementing the Administration’s energy initiatives including the ‘20 in 10 Plan’ and ‘Advanced Energy Initiative’ to confront “America’s addiction to oil” and to “address the serious challenge of climate change.” He is also a leading contributor to the efforts to establish a post-2012 global framework. His successes have led Businessweek magazine to call him ‘the point man for Bush’s Green Push’.

The 20 in 10 Plan, Mr Karsner explained to the Committee for Melbourne – a private, not-for-profit network of Melbourne leaders, which includes a Climate Change Taskforce – aims to achieve a 20 per cent reduction of gasoline dependency in America within a decade.

The ‘Advanced Energy Initiative’ provides for a 22 per cent increase in funding for clean energy technology research at the Department of Energy. This initiative includes investments in revolutionary solar and wind technologies, better batteries for hybrid and electric cars, pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen, and cutting-edge methods for producing ethanol.

The Office of EERE also bears primary responsibility for technology advancement, education, conservation, regulation and efficient use of America’s energy resources, including federal energy management and procurement, building codes, and appliance standards, amongst others.

Although, Mr Karsner said, energy efficiency is a “less sexy step-sister” to renewables, he emphasised that efficiency is the top of the heap in plans for America, with the Office of EERE going beyond incrementalism to taking great leaps into implementing standards and codes across the board.

The Office’s ‘systems approach’ aims to meld commercial markets along with policy and science, launching advertising and message-spreading initiatives, including those aimed at the 7 to 12-year-old age bracket. In late 2007, the US Department of Energy embarked upon an innovative partnership with the Walt Disney Corporation to promote energy efficiency through a television spot based on the Disney/Pixar film Ratatouille. The 30-second animated spot features the characters from the movie, and urges viewers to make the switch from incandescent bulbs to Energy Star compact fluorescent lights.

Discussing possible clean energy initiatives in Australia, Mr Karsner is advocating that this country takes up a Loan Guarantee Program. With its central focus on innovative technologies to avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the Loan Guarantee Program provides authority for the US Department of Energy to guarantee loans that support early commercial use of advanced technologies that employ new or significantly improved energy technologies.

Overall, Assistant Secretary Karsner emphasised to Committee members that a global accord and rational resource utilisation worldwide are both vital. He believes that ‘The Major Economies Meetings’ and ‘Asia Pacific Partnership’ to negotiate and establish a post-2012 Global Framework Convention will be an important method of bringing people together, working towards a greener and more energy efficient future.