UMaine News

His words are as relevant today as they were then.

“In 1973, we found ourselves stretched over an oil barrel – and we vowed to become energy independent,” he told an audience during a September, 1990 ship launching at Bath Iron Works. “We preached and practiced conservation knowing that the cheapest barrel of oil was the one that never had to be produced. Within 10 years, our memory and will power faded. Tax incentives for conservation terminated. Big cars returned to our highways, speed limits increased. Consumption soared, discipline died.

“And now,” Sen. Cohen continued, “our economy is once again tied to the wildly oscillating prices of foreign oil. . . . I would far prefer to make war on energy waste than war on Baghdad.”

The senator’s concerns about energy policy forms the basis of the University of Maine’s 2005 William S. Cohen Papers Forum on Oct. 5, from 9:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at the Buchanan Alumni House on College Ave. in Orono. The event is free, open to the public and includes lunch. Because space limits attendance to 120 people, reservations are required, according to Paige Lilly, UMaine’s Cohen archivist and lead organizer. A few seats are still available by calling 581-2665 or emailing Lilly atpaige.lilly@umit.maine.edu.

The Raymond H. Fogler Library, home of the Cohen Papers, has invited a panel of energy experts to discuss and debate the nation’s energy policies, and to explore ways to establish energy security for Maine and the nation. The program, “The Promise of Energy Independence,” includes a national perspective by speakers Susan Tierney, a member of the National Commission on Energy Policy and analyst for a Boston consulting firm; and Michael Pacheco of the National Bioenergy Center of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National renewable Energy Laboratory.

Denis Bergeron, director of the Energy Programs Division at the Maine Public Utilities Commission, will address the Maine perspective on the energy situation with a talk titled “What more can we do with energy conservation?”

Gov. John Baldacci is the luncheon speaker.

A panel discussion, moderated by Charlie Slavin, dean of the UMaine Honors College, will include Beth Nagusky of the Maine Energy Resources Council and the governor’s Director of Energy Independence and Security; Dave Wilby, executive director of the Independent Energy producers of Maine, an organization of renewable power companies; and Rob Gardiner of the Conservation Law Foundation and director of CLF’s Maine Advocacy Center, a New England environmental advocacy organization.

The William S. Cohen Papers Forum, presented by UMaine’s Raymond H. Fogler Library, is intended to raise awareness of the diverse research material in the library’s William S. Cohen Papers collection and to provide a forum for public discussion of current affairs based on Cohen’s political career.

Cohen, born and raised in Bangor, has been a fierce advocate of energy conservation, alternative fuels research and an aggressive national energy policy, particularly during his years as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1970s.

Lilly notes that the nation is finding itself in much the same situation as it did prior to and during energy crises of the past. Thirty years since Cohen first made energy policy an issue, experts at the Oct. 5 forum will explore what compromises are needed to fuel the future and gain energy security today. Speakers will address reliable energy sources, biomass conversion and liquid natural gas terminal siting.