CONGRESSIONAL ENERGY INITIATIVES TO BE FOCUS AT NANOTX’07

Consistent with the findings and call to action made by the distinguished Energy Summit panel at NanoTX’06, one of the world’s largest nanotechnology conferences, Congress reportedly is now acting to fund and advance the commercialization of alternative energy sources.

The Washington Post reports that the new Democratic Congress has seized the initiative with bold plans to be unveiled January 18. The report says the package is comprehensive and would "plow money into new tax breaks for renewable energy sources" by rolling back "billions of dollars worth of oil drilling incentives" and "boosting federal royalties paid by oil and gas companies."

Nanotechnology will play a vital role in solving the world’s energy problems, as envisioned by nanotechnology pioneer, the late Dr. Richard Smalley. The Energy Summit at nanoTX’06, hosted by Nobel Laureate Dr. Alan MacDiarmid of the University of Texas, Dallas, made an urgent call for new, aggressive collaboration between government, industry and science (see press release Nov. 2, 2006).

As the third highest ranking Democrat on the House Science Committee and as a Member of the House Science Energy Subcommittee, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas took a keen interest in the event and her committee stressed its influence to the new leadership in Washington. The committee, under her leadership, intends to focus on this issue in the new Congress. Rep. Johnson told reporters "Texas is in a great position to leverage oil royalties into forward-thinking fuel technology research. I will continue to urge passage of an energy technology bill to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi corroborated the Washington Post story on NPR January 9, saying the package would yield "about $15 billion" to fund alternative sources. Renewable-energy lobbyists told reporters "that would set off a feeding frenzy among boosters of hydro-power, nuclear, biofuels, geothermal and solar advocates," exactly the fields being developed further at the Energy Summit during the upcoming nanoTX’07 (www.nanotx.biz). As before, those findings will be shared with congress.

"The Democratic energy package will show impact in two primary areas," said Peter Balbus, Managing Director of Pragmaxis LLC and Chairman of the NanoTX’07 Energy Summit. "First, it corrects the oversight in managing offshore production royalties of billions of dollars owed by the oil industry. Second, it directs a portion of these overdue royalties into renewable energy research. This funding will go a long way toward reasserting US leadership in next generation energy technologies. Oil as a primary fuel source may not be going away anytime soon, but it is vital to our long-term security and economic interests that we see a coherent long-range energy policy emerge from Washington. This energy package will be a cornerstone of that policy."

Dr. MacDiarmid told reporters after the last Energy Summit that "clean energy derived from renewable sources, especially agricultural, holds the promise of dramatically improving the living conditions of billions of people everywhere." Panel member Sam Hatcher, CEO of Liberty Holdings, suggested "the next great area of promising energy research will be biofuels derived from wood chip feedstocks." Balbus agreed with Hatcher, but added that "the convergence of traditionally unrelated science and engineering disciplines—including nanoscience, agriculture, agronomy, botany, chemical engineering, energy,—are creating an unprecedented level of interest and focus in solving the world’s energy challenges."

Presented by the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative (TNI), nanoTX’07 continues the theme: The Promise of Tomorrow—The International Business of Nanotechnology.

According to TNI President Kelly Kordzik, an Austin patent attorney with Fish & Richardson P.C., nanoTX’07 will draw the top minds in four vital and interrelated nanotech areas of commerce: Semiconductor/MEMS/NEMS, Defense/Homeland Security/Aerospace, Biomed/Health Sciences, and Energy/Chemical/Environment, plus providing an intense study of Trends/Finance/Investing by leading experts of industry. "There are a lot of people working very hard to make nanoTX'07 the nanotechnology event of the highest quality," says Kordzik. nanoTX’07 is held during International Nanotechnology Week.