Simon David Freeman (January 14, 1926 – May 12, 2020) was an American engineer, attorney, and author, who had many key roles in energy policy. After working with the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

, first as an engineer and later as an attorney, he was selected to sit on energy committees by

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

in 1967. He then worked with the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

, before returning to the TVA as chairman at the request of

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

. After finishing his term, Freeman headed several public utilities companies, most notably the

New York Power Authority The New York Power Authority (NYPA), officially the Power Authority of the State of New York, is a New York State public-benefit corporation. It is the largest state public power utility in the United States. NYPA provides some of the lowest-co ...

, the

Sacramento Municipal Utility District The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is a community-owned electric utility serving Sacramento County and parts of Placer County. It is one of the ten largest publicly owned utilities in the United States, generating the bulk of its po ...

and the

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States with 8,100 megawatts of electric generating capacity (2021-2022) and delivering an average of 435 million gallons of water per day to more ...

Early life and education

Freeman was born on January 14, 1926, in

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

, the son of Lena and Morris Freeman, an umbrella repairman. His parents were

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

Jewish and Russian Jewish immigrants to the United States via

Ellis Island Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mi ...

. Freeman received a degree in electrical engineering from

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

in 1948. After working for five years with the

(TVA), he went on to study law at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

, earning a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

in 1956. He subsequently went back to work for the TVA, this time as an attorney.

Career

Freeman was appointed to energy committees by President

in 1967 and worked in the

Environmental Protection Agency 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 ...

(EPA) during the presidency of

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

. He counseled the

Senate Commerce Committee The United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is a standing committee of the United States Senate. Besides having broad jurisdiction over all matters concerning interstate commerce, science and technology policy, a ...

with regards to fuel-efficiency standards and supervised the 1974 report by the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

titled 'A Time to Choose'. Freeman decided to stop construction on several nuclear projects that may have contributed to several rate increases with TVA. , TVA's generation portfolio is 39% nuclear, 19% coal, 26% natural gas, 11% hydro, 3% wind and solar, and 1% energy efficiency. He also headed other major energy organizations, including the

and the

(LADWP); he was in charge of the latter from 1997 to 2001. After his tenure with the LADWP, Freeman became president of the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners. He presided over a drive to reduce pollution in the ports of Los Angeles and

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

LCRA

Freeman served as the general manager of the

Lower Colorado River Authority The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) is a nonprofit public utility created in November 1934 by the Texas Legislature. LCRA's mission is to enhance the lives of the Texans it serves through water stewardship, energy and community service. LCR ...

from 1986-1990. He was hired after a major scandal involving conflicts of interest, nepotism, sexual improprieties, and mismanagement were uncovered. Freeman moved quickly to restore confidence in the utility, firing some officials. He recruited people to restore the utility's reputation. He hired Mark Rose, who had promoted energy efficiency as an

Austin City Council The Austin City Council is the unicameral legislature of the city of Austin, Texas, United States of America. The mayor is included as a member of the council and presides over all council meetings and ceremonies. The current mayor of Austin is ...

member. Subsequently Rose became general manager of LCRA himself. According to Rose, Freeman canceled a massive mining project involving a 12-mile conveyor belt despite political pressure. Rose said, "Before anyone else, he was talking about conservation as a replacement for the central station power plant,” adding that he was three decades ahead of his time. While in Austin, Freeman began wearing his trademark hat and became known as the "Green Cowboy".

SMUD

Freeman has been termed an "eco-pioneer" for his environmentally-oriented leadership of the

(SMUD). Freeman became general manager of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in 1990. He has said that SMUD was an embarrassment at that time, and the district was "reeling from two decades of rate hikes, construction cost overruns, operating failures, equipment outages, worker injuries, poor morale and management scandals". Freeman left SMUD in 1994. According to Freeman, since opening in 1971,

Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station The Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station is a decommissioned nuclear power plant built by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in Herald, California. History In 1966, SMUD purchased in southeast Sacramento County for a nuclear pow ...

had "suffered dozens of emergencies, shutdowns, releases of radioactive material and accidents". In 1989, the people of

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

voted to close Rancho Seco. SMUD's Board of Directors later hired Freeman, an advocate of public power, to take the helm. Freeman's strategy, reinforced by the board, was to focus intensely on energy efficiency and to invest proactively in renewable energy resources. To fill the energy resource hole left by the closure of Rancho Seco, Freeman embarked immediately in 1990 on one of the most aggressive energy efficiency programs of any utility at the time and in 1991 hired Donald Osborn, then Director of the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

Solar & Energy Research Facility, to develop and implement a likewise aggressive solar energy program. Under Freeman's leadership the SMUD PV Pioneer Program began the broad and sustained commercialization of grid-connected, distributed (so-called "rooftop") solar that by 2002 had half of all the grid connected photovoltaic (PV) power of the entire country. The PV Pioneer Program led directly to the California Million Solar Roofs Program and the California Solar Initiative that was responsible for today's thriving and rapidly-growing American solar market.Switching To Solar, Bob Johnstone, Prometheus Books, 2011,

Death

Freeman died on May 12, 2020, at a hospital in

Reston, Virginia Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia and a principal city of the Washington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Reston's population was 63,226. Founded in 1964, Reston was influenced by the Garden City movem ...

, after having a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

. He was 94.

Books

Freeman has authored several books, including ''Energy: The New Era'' (1974), ''Winning Our Energy Independence'' (2007), An ''All-Electric America: A Climate Solution and the Hopeful Future (2016)'' and an autobiography, ''The Green Cowboy: An Energetic Life'' (2016). Other books that contain his works include ''Oral history of the Tennessee Valley Authority: Interview with S. David Freeman, March 30, 1984'' and ''Speeches by S. David Freeman'' (1997). In ''Winning Our Energy Independence'', he wrote that there is the

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 ...

needed to

wean Weaning is the process of gradually introducing an infant human or another mammal to what will be its adult diet while withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk. The process takes place only in mammals, as only mammals produce milk. The infan ...

society from the Three Poisons:

foreign oil United States energy independence is the concept of eliminating or substantially reducing import of petroleum to satisfy the nation's need for energy. Some proposals for achieving energy independence would permit imports from the neighborin ...

, dirty coal, and dangerous nuclear power.

References

External links

Conversation with S. David Freeman

Interview with S. David Freeman

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, S. David 1926 births 2020 deaths American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Businesspeople from Tennessee Georgia Tech alumni People associated with renewable energy People associated with nuclear power People from Chattanooga, Tennessee Sacramento Municipal Utility District Tennessee lawyers University of Tennessee College of Law alumni Writers from Tennessee American electrical engineers