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Joe Romm

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Dr. Joseph J. Romm was born on June 27 1960 in Middletown, New York. Romm is an author and expert on global warming, energy efficiency, green energy technologies and green transportation technologies. Romm's father, Al Romm, was a newspaper editor. His mother, Ethel Grodzins Romm, is an author and a retired engineer and technology company executive.

Romm holds B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from M.I.T.

Career

Current projects

Romm is the executive director and founder of the non-profit Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, an organization based in Washington DC that helps businesses and U.S. States adopt high-leverage strategies for saving energy and cutting pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. He is also a principal of the Capital E Group, which consults on technology assessment and sustainable design services for stationary fuel cells and other clean energy technologies.[1] Romm is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. He lectures frequently[2] on energy technology and global warming.

Romm is interviewed in the current documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car?, directed by Chris Paine and narrated by Martin Sheen. Romm's forthcoming book on global warming, Hell or High Water, is discussed below.

Service at the Department of Energy

Romm served as Acting Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy during 1997 and as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary from 1995 though 1998. At the Department of Energy, Romm helped manage the largest program in the world for helping businesses develop and use advanced clean energy and distributed generation technologies to cut costs, increase reliability, and reduce pollution.[3]

The program was aimed at the industrial, utility, transportation, and buildings sectors. The program was the lead federal agency for developing technologies such as PEM fuel cells, microturbines, advanced cogeneration, superconductivity, building controls, photovoltaics and other renewables, and hydrogen production and storage. Romm was in charge of technology analysis for the Office. Romm initiated, supervised, and publicized a comprehensive technical analysis by five national laboratories of the energy technologies best able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively, "The Five Lab Study." [4]

Earlier projects

Romm has taught at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He also worked at the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rocky Mountain Institute. Romm was the principal investigator for the National Science Foundation project, Future Directions for Hydrogen Energy Research and Education. He also performed the first environmental analysis of a system integrating cogenerating fuel cells, fly wheels, and power electronics aimed at achieving very high-availability power.[5]

Publications

Romm has published a number of books on energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions and pollution with green technologies, including The Hype about Hydrogen, Cool Companies: How the Best Businesses Boost Profits and Productivity by Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions (the first book to benchmark corporate best practices for using advanced energy technologies, including fuel cells, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions), Lean and Clean Management, and The Once and Future Superpower, and other topics. He also wrote the National Commission on Energy Policy's report, "The Car and Fuel of the Future," (July 2004). He also wrote the 1994 Rocky Mountain Institute Report: Greening the Building and the Bottom Line: Increasing Productivity Through Energy-Efficient Design. (ISBN 9996358097).

Romm's forthcoming book on global warming, expected March 1 2007 (William Morrow & Co), will be called Hell and High Water: Global Warming—The Solution and the Politics.[6] Romm also maintains a blog on global warming and related topics.[7]

Romm has written and lectured widely on distributed energy, clean technologies, business and environment issues and global warming, including articles in Technology Review, Issues in Science and Technology, Forbes, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, the L.A. Times, Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, Science (journal) and Scientific American. He co-authored, with Charles Curtis, "MidEast Oil Forever," the cover story of the April 1996 issue of the Atlantic Monthly that predicted higher oil prices within a decade and discussed alternative energy strategies.

Romm and Prof. Andrew A. Frank co-authored an article, "Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction", published in the April 2006 issue of Scientific American, in which they argue that hybrid cars that can be plugged into the electric grid (Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) will soon become standard in the automobile industry.

Quote

"Global warming is going to transform this country and our transportation and the way we live our lives. If we don't act pretty soon, in an intelligent fashion, then change will be forced upon us by the radically changed climate... global warming is the issue of the century...." [8]

Books by Romm

  • Romm, Joseph (2004). The Hype about Hydrogen, Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate. New York: Island Press. (ISBN 1-55963-703-X). An updated edition was published in 2005 (ISBN 1-55963-704-8). The book has also been translated into German as Der Wasserstoff-boom.
  • Romm, Joseph (1999). Cool Companies: How the Best Businesses Boost Profits and Productivity by Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions. New York: Island Press. (ISBN 1-55963-709-9).
  • Romm, Joseph (1994). Lean and Clean Management: How to Boost Profits and Productivity by Reducing Pollution. New York: Kodansha Amer Inc. (ISBN 1-56836-037-1).
  • Romm, Joseph (1993). Defining National Security: The Nonmilitary Aspects. Washington: Council on Foreign Relations. (ISBN 0-87609-135-4).
  • Romm, Joseph (1992). The Once and Future Superpower: How to Restore America's Economic, Energy, and Environmental Security. New York: William Morrow & Co. (ISBN 0-688-11868-2).
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