GW Environmental and Energy Management

03/02/2026

The GW Engineering-based Environmental and Energy Management Institute (EEMI), in partnership with the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME), conducted a Symposium on Transatlantic Energy Security in the National Press Club on February 4, 2026. Conducted in the Main Ballroom of the Press Club, attendance was a standing room-only crowd including by some of the top energy leaders in the United States and Europe.

After welcoming remarks by EEMI Executive Director Dr. Jonathan Deason and SAME PC Post President Bree Beal, EEMI Director for International Affairs Ambassador Andras Simonyi served as moderator for the day-long program. The Symposium featured a host of top-level energy experts from the U.S. and European Union governments and private sector organizations, including Members of Congress from both parties, top energy officials from the Federal Administration, top-level energy NGO leaders, and senior corporate energy officials.

The Honorable Alex Beehler, EEMI Director for Innovative Energy and former Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, moderated an hour-long Fireside Chat between Congressman Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), Chairman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee and Member of the Energy Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology; and Congressman Mike Levin (D-CA), member of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Vice Chairman of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition. Secretary Beehler also chaired the morning Keynote Session featuring the Honorable Jordan Gillis, current Assistant Secretary of the Army (Installations, Energy and Environment); Dr. Rian Bahran, current Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Reactors at the U.S. Department of Energy; and Joseph Dunne, former Director, European Parliament Liaison Office.

Scott Sklar, EEMI Director for Sustainable Energy, chaired a session on grid resilience with new nuclear energy sources and AI energy demands, featuring GW grad Tom Mooney, Director of Energy and Nuclear Business Development for the Parsons Corporation; and Michael Turner, Chairman of National Association of Counties Committee on Energy, Environment, and Land Use and the preeminent expert on energy demands of the U.S. explosive growth in data centers in his role as Vice Chairman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

Other speakers at the Symposium included Major General Kim Colloton former Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Jeremy Bowen, Deputy Director for Nuclear Reactors, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Zachary Johnson, Director of the Ukraine Task Force, National Nuclear Security Administration, U.S. Department of Energy; Dr. Mark Sudol, former Director of the Regulatory Program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and Jenny Smith, Vice President of the Bechtel Corporation.

09/06/2025

We just published the speakers list for the symposium on Transatlantic Energy Security that our GW Environmental and Energy Management Institute will be holding on October 29, 2025, at the National Press Club in partnership with the Society of American Military Engineers. You can see the list at https://www.sameenergysecurity.org/schedule/speakers.

08/02/2025

Our GW Environmental and Energy Management Institute is planning to hold a symposium on Transatlantic Energy Security in the National Press Club in Washington, DC on October 29, 2025. The Society of American Military Engineering is partnering with us on this event.

03/07/2025

Our latest EEMI newsltter just came out:

Newsletter Page

02/23/2025

On February 21, 2025, GW Engineering-based Environmental and Energy Management Institute (EEMI) conducted a hugely popular web-based seminar entitled “Guardrails of Governance: Legal and Administrative Resilience in Trump 2.0.” The webinar, which attracted more than 1,200 registered participants, was a follow-up to the December 18, 2024, EEMI-produced webinar entitled “Navigating the Trump 2 Deregulatory Agenda: Lessons from Environmental Officials in Trump 1.”

This webinar was a collaboration between EEMI and the GW Law School. Panelists were Richard J. Pierce Jr., Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law, who is one of the Nation’s foremost scholars on administrative law and the author of several seminal works on the relationship between executive power and regulatory agencies; Robert L. Glicksman, J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law, who specializes in administrative law, environmental regulation, and natural resources law; Caroline Cecot, an expert in regulatory law and economics; and Alan B. Morrison, Lerner Family Associate Dean for Public Interest and Public Service Law, who is a celebrated public interest litigator and the founding Director of the Public Citizen Litigation Group.

Dr. Edward Saltzberg, EEMI Director of Professional Education, organized and moderated the session, assisted by EEMI Deputy Executive Director Joe Cascio.

Webinar panelists discussed the judiciary's critical role in oversight of executive powers, the history environmental policies in President Trump’s first term and the first month of his second term and what it foreshadows, as well as what to expect by way of obstacles, agency autonomy, environmental regulation challenges, and statutory tools for upholding agency missions during political transitions.

In addition, the topic of transparency and accountability in government decision-making was discussed, along with the role of scientific and economic analyses in maintaining regulatory frameworks and the importance of preserving transparency in governance to safeguard public trust.

Finaly, panelists explored the importance of tools like the Freedom of Information Act and whistleblower protections in preserving institutional integrity.

The webinar helped to equip federal executives, legal practitioners, and other professionals with actionable strategies to navigate the evolving political landscape. EEMI will be producing another webinar on this important topic, entitled “Trump's Second Act:
Power, Resistance, and the Limits of Governance,” that is scheduled to be conducted on Thursday, March 6, 2025.

02/23/2025

President Jimmy Cater’s death at age 100 in December 2024 prompted some reflections and reminiscences by several EMMI colleagues. Dr. Andras Simonyi, former Hungarian Ambassador to the United States, recalled a long conversation with President Carter, followed by Carter’s decision to return the Crown of St. Stephen to the Hungarian people in 1978, which had been held by the U.S. since the end of World War II in 1945. Andras also remembered that Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski had opposed that return. Despite that disagreement, Andras later because a close friend of Brzezinski, who was a polish-American diplomat with a background somewhat similar to that of Andras. Andras said that Carter’s decision to return the Crown to the people of Hungary, rather than its Communist government, “was his first signal to the Russians that you don’t own Central Europe.”

EEMI Director for Sustainable Energy Scott Sklar related his experience in working with Carter's team on the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 while Scott worked for Senator Jacob Javits of New York. That federal law encouraged the use of renewable energy and conservation and set the basis for Scott’s lifelong career as one of America’s leading figures in renewable energy.

Professor Donna Attanasio, EEMI Director of Energy Law and Policy, related her experience with the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, noting that “it was the wedge that permitted the creation of regional transmission systems and markets and the independent generation industry. The innovation and competition that followed put us on a path to competitive energy pricing, making energy more affordable…and promoted time of use pricing and energy conservation and efficiency (and) introduced the concept of shaping customer usage rather than just building to meet demand.”

EEMI Director Jonathan Deason related how Carter was indirectly responsible for his GW career. Carter’s famous 1978 Water Policy Initiatives that were focused on water conservation, environmental quality, and cost-sharing for federal water projects involved 13 federal interagency task forces to implement his policy. Deason was appointed to chair one of those task forces while working at the U.S. Department of the Interior. As a reward for successfully completing that assignment, Carter’s Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus sent Deason to the University of Virgina on a full federal fellowship to get his Ph.D. degree, which ultimately led to his position at GW.

On Carter’s December 29, 2024 death, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas L. Friedman wrote that Carter’s “vision and persistence on solar energy — like his vision and persistence on Middle East peace — deserve to be brightly illuminated today, preferably with an LED bulb powered by solar energy.”

02/23/2025

Washington DC’s WTOP News covered the very popular off-grid buildings of EEMI’s Director of Sustainable Energy Professor Scott Sklar (https://eemi.engineering.gwu.edu/sklar-scott).
The news coverage discussed how four decades ago Prof. Sklar began to move off-grid by installing solar-powered sump pumps in his Arlington, Virginia, home, followed by solar panels, wind turbines, and other technologies. Today his home and an adjacent business office building also has thermal barrier paint in the attic, all LED lights, solar water heating, a huge hydrogen fuel cell-powered battery bank, a ductless geothermal heat pump and insulating windows. These all power his home completely off the grid.

In the newscast, WTOP quoted Prof. Sklar as saying “As climate change is getting worse and grids are getting older, we’re getting more outages, so the commercial, industrial and residential sector buildings are starting to add battery banks; as well as utilities are fighting because they don’t want the electricity, because they don’t own it, so I’m trying to convince people (to) just use the power yourself, like I’m doing.”

02/23/2025

On November 13, 2024, the GW Environmental and Energy Management Institute was featured in a presentation to a conference of the Washington Metropolitan Area Chapter of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). INCOSE is a not-for-profit membership organization founded to develop and disseminate the transdisciplinary principles and practices that enable the realization of successful systems in the interest of developing the global community of systems engineers and systems approaches to problems.

The EEMI presentation, made by EEMI Executive Director Jonathan Deason, covered the EEMI mission of conducting state-of-the-art and highly relevant research, promoting graduate and professional education, and undertaking service and policy-inducing activities pertinent to the application of solutions to sustainability challenges facing organizations and communities throughout the Nation and the world. The presentation provided an overview of research projects undertaken by the Institute that have been funded by organizations like the United nations Environmental Programme, the UNFCCC Secretariat, the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and the ClearPath Foundation.

Prof. Deason also explained the history and structure of the Institute, including its 16 Directors from colleges across the University. He also cited some of the EEMI educational programs and service activities such as the Clean Energy Resilience Professional Short Course Program, the Climate Judiciary Program, and various EEMI educational symposia. Details of the presentation can be seen on the slides used for the event, which can be seen at EEMI Presentation at INCOSE WMA Conference.

12/22/2024

Our webinar on “Navigating the Trump 2 Deregulatory Agenda: Lessons from Environmental Officials in Trump 1” on December 18, 2024, was a huge success with 857 registered participants, plus some organizational registrants (including the Environmental Protection Agency, Colorado Public Health Department, and Leaders in Energy) that attended with groups of ten or more.

The event featured the following EEMI leaders, all of whom are former senior federal government officials:
• Dr. Teresa Pohlman, a GW Engineering doctoral graduate who retired recently as the Director of Sustainability and Environmental Programs at the Department of Homeland Security, where she led efforts to integrate sustainability and environmental compliance into DHS operations. With a career spanning decades in federal service, Teresa previously held key roles in environmental management and policy, including overseeing safety and environmental initiatives at multiple federal agencies. She now is a key EEMI leader and an Adjunct Professor in GW Engineering.
• Mark Pollins, a former long-time Director of the Water Enforcement Division at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he led efforts to enforce the Clean Water Act and ensure compliance with critical environmental regulations. Throughout his career, Mark was instrumental in addressing significant challenges, such as water quality enforcement and public health crises. He now is the EEMI Director of Food and Water.
• Alex Beehler, who served as the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy, and Environment during the first Trump administration, where he focused on enhancing energy resilience and environmental sustainability across Army operations. Prior to that role, Alex held several other senior positions in the federal government, including Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment, and Assistant Deputy for Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health at the Department of Defense. His extensive experience in energy, environment, and defense uniquely positioned him to navigate the complexities of aligning federal priorities with the Trump administration’s agenda. Alex now is the EEMI Director of Innovative Energy Strategies.

The event was organized and directed by Dr. Ed Saltzberg, EEMI Director of Professional Education.

The panelists explored their experiences in successfully navigating the challenges of the first Trump administration. Despite the emphasis on deregulation, these leaders found creative ways to keep their energy, environmental, and climate programs operational. They maintained progress on critical priorities by leveraging strategic alignment, finding common ground, and developing innovative frameworks.

Based on the large number of post-event comments received from participants, the experiences of the panelists provided valuable insights for federal staff facing similar challenges today. Below are a few of those comments:

• “The guests seemed unbiased and had very practical viewpoints, grounded in expertise and long history in government and private sector. Put me (and therefore perhaps other attendees) more at ease about what's to come.”

• “People with practical ideas, and experience with what they were talking about…not just left-wing people talking.”

• “It was very encouraging as we all look to be proactive and prepared, to explore new avenues rather than just ‘batten down the hatches and brace yourself.’”

A recording of the event can be seen at https://vimeo.com/1040547249

11/28/2024

Our Environmental and Energy Management Institute is presenting a webinar entitled “Navigating the Trump 2 Deregulatory Agenda: Lessons from Environmental Officials in Trump 1” on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, from 1:15 to 2:45 PM EST.
We will explore the experiences of federal environmental officials who successfully navigated the challenges of the first Trump administration. Despite the emphasis on deregulation, these leaders found creative ways to keep their energy, environmental, and climate programs operational. They maintained progress on critical priorities by leveraging strategic alignment, finding common ground, and developing innovative frameworks. Their experiences offer valuable insights for federal staff facing similar challenges today.
It is free to register using the link: https://bit.ly/3ZuJVGz
Even if you can’t attend, registration will enable you to view the recording at a later date.

Lessons from Environmental Officials in Trump 1

10/21/2024

On September 16, 2024, members of our GW Environmental and Energy Management Institute (EEMI) met with colleagues from the International Fund for China’s Environment (IFCE) and the Chinese Electric Power Development Association to discuss approaches to low carbon development in China. Leading the Chinese delegation was Dr. Ping He, President of the IFCE, and Mr. Ying Guangwei, Chairman of the Low-Carbon Energy and Smart Power Professional Committee of the China Electric Power Development Association.

Leading the GW delegation were Dr. Payman Dehghanian, Director of GW Engineering’s Smart Grid Lab and EEMI Director of Smart Grid Technologies; Professor Scott Sklar, EEMI Director of Sustainable Energy; and Dr. Jonathan Deason, EEMI Executive Director.

During the meeting, the delegates discussed three topics related to low carbon development in China. The first topic involved overall global trends in decarbonizing electricity generation, followed by an overview of China's new low-carbon power system by Mr. Guangwei, and concluding with a discussion of innovation and the development of smart power systems.

It is anticipated that the participating organizations will pursue partnership activities going forward, particularity through GW Engineering’s Smart Grid Laboratory led by Dr. Dehghanian.

In addition, the delegates discussed the possibility of another visit to GW Engineering by Mr. Mei Dewen, Secretary-General of the Beijing Emissions Trading Association and member of the China Low Carbon Development Research Center at Peking University. Such a visit would be a follow-up to a previous visit to GW Engineering in 2016 when Mr. Mei was the keynote speaker at an EEMI-conducted symposium on “China's National Carbon Trading System” that was held in the Lehman Auditorium of the Science and Engineering Hall.