Breakout Session II
Policies to Incent Biofuels Development and Global Climate Change Mitigation Considerations
Howard Learner
Howard Learner is an experienced public interest attorney who serves as the president of the Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC) – the Midwest’s leading environmental legal advocacy and eco-business innovation organization. He is responsible for the overall strategic leadership and program direction for ELPC's work to promote clean energy development solutions to global warming problems, improve the Midwest's environmental quality, and preserve the region's natural resources and heritage. One of the Center’s premises is that environmental progress and economic development can be achieved together.
Learner and the ELPC have been deeply engaged in developing the innovative new clean energy programs in the 2002 Farm Bill, achieving successful implementation of the renewable energy and energy efficiency programs over the subsequent five years, and advocating expansion and improvements of the clean energy development provisions in the 2007 Farm Bill.
Learner previously served as the General Counsel for Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, a public interest law center in Chicago, where he specialized in complex environmental, energy and community economic development litigation and policy development. He received the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois – Federal Bar Association’s Award for Excellence in Pro Bono and Public Interest Service (2006), the Public Interest Law Initiative’s Distinguished Public Service Award (2005) and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s National Champion of Energy Efficiency Award for Energy Policy (2002). Learner and the Center received ShoreBank’s Green Neighbor Award (2007), the American Wind Energy Association’s National Wind Energy Advocacy Award (2004) and the WPWR-TV Channel 50 Foundation’s Award for Sustained Excellence in Advocacy (1999). Mr. Learner appears in Crain's Chicago Business' “Who’s Who in Chicago Business” (1997 – 2006). He founded or co-founded the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation and the Illinois Citizens Utility Board.
Learner is also an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University Law School, teaching an advanced environmental law seminar. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School (1980), and B.A. from the University of Michigan (1976).
Michael O'Hare
Michael O'Hare is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley. His biofuel research is centered on government policy, especially at the state level, encouraging the use of low-GHG biofuels in transportation and otherwise. At Berkeley, he is part of a team designing the state's low carbon fuel standard program as advisors to the Air Resources Board. O'Hare was trained as an architect and engineer at Harvard, and has been on the faculty of MIT (where he was occupied with energy conservation and development during the "energy crisis" of the 70s) and the Kennedy School at Harvard. Between these appointments he directed the policy analysis office in the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. His other research and teaching interests include Arts and Cultural Policy and public management.
Hongli Feng Hennessy
Hongli Feng Hennessy is an Associate Scientist at CARD and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Iowa State University. She specializes in the design and assessment of environmental and natural resources policies using economic tools. Dr. Feng has examined policy making in settings where dynamics and incomplete information are issues. In addition to research in the economics field, she also works on interdisciplinary projects at the interface of economics, soil and water quality, and climate change with colleagues from non-economic fields such as agricultural engineering, hydrology, and climatology. She is currently involved in several projects including the assessment of conservation practices on agricultural land in Iowa—current expenditures, water quality impacts, and the need for future investment. She also works on a project that investigates the drivers and impacts of land use and land cover changes in the Midwestern U.S. Dr. Feng’s work has been published in various professional journals.
Feng, a native of People’s Republic of China, came to Iowa State University in 1996 where she received her PhD in economics in 2001. Feng and her husband David spend their off-work time with their toddler son, Fergal.