The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) is an independent,

bi-partisan Bipartisanship, sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship, is a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system (especially those of the United States and some other western countries), in which opposing political parties find co ...

501(c)(3) non-profit organization that aims to promote environmentally sustainable societies. Based out of

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

, EESI seeks to be a catalyst moving society away from environmentally damaging

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...

s and toward a

clean energy Clean may refer to: * Cleaning, the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment * Cleanliness, the state of being clean and free from dirt Arts and media Music A ...

future. The organization was established in 1984 by a bipartisan and bicameral group of members of the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

who were concerned with global

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

and

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

problems. EESI works to advance policy solutions that reduce

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and ...

and ground-level

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different typ ...

; improve

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

energy security Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption. Access to (relatively) cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven d ...

, and economic development opportunities; and increase use of

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

and

energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...

. The group seeks to advance its mission through policymaker education, coalition building, and policy development. Charity Navigator, an independent nonprofits evaluator, has rated EESI as a 4 out of 4 stars organization since October 1, 2015.

Formation

EESI grew out of the Environmental Study Conference (ESC), a bipartisan caucus of Members of the House of Representatives launched in 1975 by Rep. Richard (Dick) Ottinger (D-NY) and Rep. Alan Steelman (R-TX). Its founding staff director James H. Rathlesberger was recruited from the office of Rep. Henry S. Reuss (D-WI), who was also among the planners. Rathlesberger recruited a talented staff of five aided immeasurably by interns. ESC’s Weekly Bulletin, becoming known as “the Green Sheet,” was on Members’ desks before start of business every Monday morning, thanks to late Friday night hours by ESC’s staff and weekend production/distribution work by intern Edward V. Kislik. Special alerts, fact sheets, and meetings for Members and Congressional staff supplemented the weekly green sheet analysis of environmental bills in hearings and floor action. ESC grew to over 150 Members of the House in less than a year. Its heavily-attended Briefings for Congressional Staff included “Cancer and the Environment,” featuring expert speakers including Ralph Nader and Dr. Sidney Wolfe on January 12, 1976. The ESC became bicameral in 1976 expanding the pool of unused “clerk-hire” funds from which to request staff salaries. This put the ESC on better footing though somewhat diminished the focus of serving House Members who had fewer staff than Senators. In 1984 the leadership of the Study Conference launched an independent non-profit, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) to continue the Conference's mission to provide information and policy resources to Congress on energy and environmental issues. EESI was established as a separate and distinct 501(c)(3) non-profit, overseen by an independent board of directors, which included several Members of Congress. The founders of the Institute were: Anthony C. Beilenson (D-CA),

George Brown, Jr. George Edward Brown Jr. (March 6, 1920 – July 15, 1999) was an American Democratic politician from California. He represented suburban portions of Los Angeles County in the United States House of Representatives from 1963 to 1971 and parts of t ...

(D-CA),

Bob Edgar Robert William "Bob" Edgar (May 29, 1943 – April 23, 2013) was an American politician and administrator from Pennsylvania, and a member of the Democratic Party. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1 ...

(D-PA), Joseph L. Fisher (D-VA),

S. William Green Sedgwick William Green (October 16, 1929 – October 14, 2002) was a Republican Party (United States), Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New York. He represented a district covering most or all of Manhattan's Ea ...

(R-NY),

Gilbert Gude Gilbert Gude (March 9, 1923 – June 7, 2007) was an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Maryland's 8th congressional district from 1967 to 1977. He was a member of the Republican Party. Early life and career Gude was b ...

(R-MD),

John Heinz Henry John Heinz III (October 23, 1938 – April 4, 1991) was an American businessman and Republican politician from Pennsylvania. Heinz represented the Pittsburgh suburbs in the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 and ...

(R-PA),

James M. Jeffords James Merrill Jeffords (May 11, 1934 – August 18, 2014) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. senator from Vermont. Sworn into the Senate in 1989, he served as a Republican until 2001, when he left the party to become ...

(R-VT),

Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph Leahy (; born March 31, 1940) is an American politician and attorney who is the senior United States senator from Vermont and serves as the president pro tempore of the United States Senate. A member of the Democratic Party, ...

(D-VT), Paul N. McCloskey, Jr. (R-CA), Richard L. Ottinger (D-NY),

Claudine Schneider Claudine Schneider (née Cmarada; born March 25, 1947) is an American economist and former politician who served as a Republican U.S. representative from Rhode Island. She was the first, and to date only, woman elected to Congress from Rhode Isl ...

(R-RI), John F. Seiberling (D-OH),

Vin Weber John Vincent Weber (born July 24, 1952) is an American politician, lobbyist and former Republican Congressman from Minnesota. Early life and education Weber was born in Slayton, Minnesota. He attended the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities f ...

(R-MN),

Howard Wolpe Howard Eliot Wolpe (November 3, 1939 – October 25, 2011) was an American politician who served as a seven-term U.S. Representative from Michigan and Presidential Special Envoy to the African Great Lakes Region in the Clinton Administration, whe ...

(D-MI),

Louis Stokes Louis Stokes (February 23, 1925 – August 18, 2015) was an American attorney, civil rights pioneer and politician. He served 15 terms in the United States House of Representatives – representing the east side of Cleveland – and was the firs ...

(D-OH),

Augustus Hawkins Augustus Freeman Hawkins (August 31, 1907 – November 10, 2007) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served in the California State Assembly from 1935 to 1963 and the U.S. House Of Representatives from 1963 to 1991. Over the ...

(D-CA),

John Chafee John Lester Hubbard Chafee ( ; October 22, 1922 – October 24, 1999) was an American politician and officer in the United States Marine Corps. A member of the Republican Party (United States), he served as the 66th Governor of Rhode Island, as ...

(R-RI),

Slade Gorton Thomas Slade Gorton III (January 8, 1928 – August 19, 2020) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from Washington from 1981 to 1987 and again from 1989 until 2001. A member of the Republican Party, he hel ...

(R-WA), Gary Hart (D-CO)

Areas of Work

Federal Policy EESI supports policy changes and strategies that will allow the United States and other countries to mitigate climate change, while also reaping the environmental, economic, national security, and public health benefits of

and renewable energy technologies. In practice, this means encouraging federal policymakers to enact legislation and policies promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency and the phasing out of harmful climate pollutants. EESI promotes policies that have bipartisan appeal in a wide range of areas, including buildings, climate change, communities, energy efficiency, industry, public health, renewable energy, rural issues, and transportation. On-Bill Financing In addition to its federal policy work, EESI launched a community-focused energy efficiency program in 2014, following several years of work on a pilot program in

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

(starting in 2010). The On-Bill Financing Project is an ongoing initiative aimed at helping families reduce energy use, cut energy bills, and improve home comfort through an innovative financing approach known as on-bill financing. Participating organizations provide their customers with loans for home energy upgrades, such as better

insulation Insulation may refer to: Thermal * Thermal insulation, use of materials to reduce rates of heat transfer ** List of insulation materials ** Building insulation, thermal insulation added to buildings for comfort and energy efficiency *** Insulated ...

or more energy-efficient heating and cooling systems. These loans are then repaid through a monthly charge on the customer's

utility As a topic of economics, utility is used to model worth or value. Its usage has evolved significantly over time. The term was introduced initially as a measure of pleasure or happiness as part of the theory of utilitarianism by moral philosoph ...

bill. When the program is properly designed, the savings resulting from the energy efficiency upgrades outweigh the cost of the loan, and the customer saves money every month. EESI's on-bill financing initiative has expanded into a national effort to significantly improve the energy efficiency of homes served by rural electri
cooperatives
and public power utilities. Because the approach involves no money down (and can be designed to be cash-flow positive), it can work for low-income families that are unable to take advantage of rebates or other efficiency incentives.

Briefings and Publications

Briefings EESI holds between 25 and 30 Congressional briefings every year to inform

Congressional staff Congressional staff are employees of the United States Congress or individual members of Congress. History Before the American Civil War, members of Congress did not have staff assistance or even offices, and "most members worked at their desks ...

ers, the federal policymaking community, and the public at large about energy and environmental issues. These briefings bring experts from government, industry, and civil society to Capitol Hill for bipartisan discussions on cutting-edge research, success stories, lessons learned, and stakeholder feedback. Briefing topics have included resilience, national security issues, water issues, energy efficiency,

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...

wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to electricity generation, generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable energy, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller Environmental impact of wi ...

, geothermal power,

hydropower Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, converting the Pot ...

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

s and hydrogen energy,

biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (E ...

s and

biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...

, clean energy financing, deploying electric vehicles, mass transit, walkable cities, climate change impacts, short-lived climate pollutants, transmission and the power grid, district energy, and

microgrids Distributed generation, also distributed energy, on-site generation (OSG), or district/decentralized energy, is electrical generation and storage performed by a variety of small, grid-connected or distribution system-connected devices referred to ...

. EESI briefings are free, held on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and most are open to the public. In 2013, EESI began livestreaming most of its briefings. Publications EESI periodically publishes web articles, issue briefs, and fact sheets on environmental and energy issues and related legislation. Additionally, EESI distributes two weekly newsletters:
Climate Change News
(CCN), featuring the main climate-related science, business, and policy stories of the week; and
Sustainable Bioenergy, Farms, and Forests
(SBFF), focusing on policy developments in

bioenergy Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms biom ...

and sustainable land use. All EESI publications and newsletters are distributed free of charge.

References

External links

Environmental and Energy Study Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Environmental And Energy Study Institute Climate change organizations based in the United States Renewable energy organizations based in the United States Energy conservation in the United States Environmental studies organizations

Formation

Areas of Work

Briefings and Publications

See also

References

External links