Media Advisory: Rice’s McConnell to testify before Congress Wednesday

MEDIA ADVISORY

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Rice’s McConnell to testify before Congress Wednesday

HOUSTON – (July 5, 2016) – Charles McConnell, executive director of Rice University’s Energy and Environment Initiative, will testify before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Energy and Power at the hearing “A Review of EPA’s Regulatory Activity During the Obama Administration: Energy and Industrial Sectors” at 10 a.m. EDT Wednesday, July 6, in Room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

Charles McConnell

The hearing will examine major regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency since 2009 that affected the energy and industrial sectors and additional rules and initiatives the agency plans to pursue before the end of the Obama administration.

McConnell will provide remarks and then take questions from the committee.

Who:  Charles McConnell, executive director of Rice’s Energy and Environment Initiative and former U.S. assistant secretary of energy at the U.S. Department of Energy.

What: Testimony on the EPA’s regulatory activity before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Power.

When: 10 a.m. EDT Wednesday, July 6.

Where: Room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

Joining McConnell to testify before the committee will be Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Industrial Commission; Travis Kavulla, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and vice chairman of the Montana Public Service Commission; David Porter, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission; and Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.

Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., chairs the Subcommittee on Energy and Power, and its ranking member is Bobby Rush, D-Ill.

At DOE, McConnell was responsible for the strategic policy leadership, budgets, project management, and research and development of the department’s oil, natural gas, coal and advanced technologies programs. He was also responsible for the management and operations of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and for DOE’s national energy technologies laboratories.

Prior to his service at DOE, McConnell served as vice president of carbon management at Battelle Energy Technology in Columbus, Ohio, for two years, and he managed businesses at Praxair Inc. for 31 years, many of them in Houston. McConnell is a former member of the board of directors for both the Clean Carbon Foundation of Texas and the Gulf Coast Carbon Center. He has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and an MBA in finance from Cleveland State University.

For more information, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at 713-348-6327 or david@rice.edu.

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A high-resolution IMAGE is available for download at:
http://news.rice.edu/files/2013/08/0903-MCCONNELL-mug-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Charles McConnell

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