Rice’s McConnell to testify before Congress May 26

MEDIA ADVISORY

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

Rice’s McConnell to testify before Congress Thursday

HOUSTON – (May 24, 2016) – Charles McConnell, executive director of Rice University’s Energy and Environment Initiative, will testify before the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s Subcommittee on Environment hearing “Impact of EPA’s Clean Power Plan on States” at 8:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, May 26, in Room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

McConnell will provide remarks and then take questions from the committee on the impact of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan.

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 EPA Clean Power Plan before U.S. House Subcommittee on Environment.

When: 8:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, May 26.

Where: Room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

Joining McConnell to testify before the committee will be Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma attorney general, and Brianne Gorod, chief counsel at the Constitutional Accountably Center.

Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., chairs the Subcommittee on Environment, and its ranking member is Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore.

At DOE, McConnell was responsible for the strategic policy leadership, budgets, project management, and research and development of DOE’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. McConnell holds 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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