Biography of Alexander 'Andy' Karsner (Full Version)

Assistant Secretary

Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Below is the full version of Assistant Secretary Karsner's biography.

The Assistant Secretary manages the nation's $1.72 billion federal applied science, research, development, and deployment portfolio, which promotes marketplace integration of renewable and environmentally sound energy technologies for transportation, generation, and efficiency.

Assistant Secretary Karsner is a principal contributor to the international climate change deliberations towards achieving a post-2012 global framework and leads the administration's efforts to develop and implement ongoing prominent energy initiatives launched by President Bush in three consecutive State of the Union Addresses. These include:

"The Major Economies Process" to support the achievement of a post-2012 Global Framework Accord on climate change through the UNFCCC process by its 2009 meeting in Copenhagen. Karsner is working to establish an internationally binding greenhouse gas emissions reductions target amongst the world's 17 largest economies (that contribute in excess of 85% of emissions); developing environmentally effective, nationally appropriate plans with measurable and verifiable intermediate milestones for emissions reductions with more immediate trajectories that are consequential; and establishing a global clean technology fund for developing nations.

Read Tom Friedman's New York Times Column "What Was That All About?" regarding Karsner's representation of the United States during the "Bali Roadmap" negotiations.

"The 20 in 10 Plan" to enhance security and reduce America's dependency and use of gasoline by 20% with an unprecedented size, scope, and timetable for alternative fuels mandates and increased vehicle efficiency (CAFE) standards, elevated approximately 40%. This initiative manifested in the bipartisan Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, for which Karsner advocated and testified on more than any Administration official. It mandated unprecedented levels of efficiency codes and standards for lighting (phasing out incandescents), major appliances, and federal energy use.

Read Mark Gunther's Fortune interview of the Assistant Secretary, "Bush's Clean Energy Man," immediately after joining the President's energy bill signing ceremony.

"The Advanced Energy Initiative" ("AEI") to rebalance R&D priorities and accelerate commercialization of technological breakthroughs, fundamentally enlarging our national vision, plans, and metrics for the way we power our cars, homes, and businesses and address America's "addiction to oil." AEI's components include: doubling investment in vehicle electrification, plug-in battery storage, and efficiency; "The Biofuels Initiative" to build cost-competitive cellulosic ethanol biorefineries at scale by 2012; "The Solar America Initiative" to make photovoltaics cost competitive with peak pricing nationwide by 2015 and transform the built environment with cost-neutral, zero-energy homes for scale production by 2020; and roadmapping wind energy to contribute 20% of our national generation capacity.

Read Businessweek's story "The Point Man for Bush's Green Push" for snapshot of a "day in the life" of the Advanced Energy Initiative.

His office also bears primary responsibility for technology advancement, education, conservation, regulation and efficient use of our nation's energy resources, including federal energy management and procurement, building codes, appliance standards, and the ENERGY STAR® program, amongst others. During his tenure, the Department of Energy has for the first time in its 30 year history: released regulatory standards on time or ahead of schedule; modernized and expanded ENERGY STAR brand product lines, facilitated record volumes of privately financed efficiency transactions in the Federal government, and pursued national-scale, multi-generational education and outreach campaigns with Disney, Walmart, Yahoo, and other national retailers.

Previously, Assistant Secretary Karsner served as an international developer and energy entrepreneur in the private sector on a wide range of technologies including heavy fuel oil, distillates, natural gas, coal, wood waste/biomass, wind energy and distributed generation based upon renewable technologies. He has been responsible for managing and financing large-scale power projects in North America, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, including unprecedented private structuring and financing in the Philippines and Pakistan.

Before coming to public office, Assistant Secretary Karsner led his company, Enercorp, to win a global competition to develop the world's largest private wind farm outside the United States at that time. He has worked with Tondu Energy Systems of Texas, Wartsila Power Development of Finland, and prominent multinational energy firms and developers including ABB of Sweden, RES of the UK, Tacke of Germany (now known as GE Wind), and Vestas of Denmark.

Assistant Secretary Karsner is currently leading or contributing to the Department's high-level interagency and intergovernmental working groups on Biofuels; Hydrogen; Vehicle Technologies; and federal land use for siting, permitting, and interconnection. He contributes substantially to the EU-US Transatlantic Dialogue on Biofuels and Renewables, as well as numerous, high-level bilateral and multilateral relationships, including China, India, and Brazil. Mr. Karsner represents the U.S. government on several public/private boards, including the Freedom Car and Fuel Partnership with the major automakers and oil companies; International Protocol for Hydrogen Economy; the Defense Science Board; the National Governor's Association Energy Task Force; the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative; and the Asia-Pacific Partnership.

The Assistant Secretary was a Rotary International Fellow, and received an MA from Hong Kong University. He graduated with Honors from Rice University and subsequently received the prestigious Hugh Scott Cameron Award as Outstanding Alumnus. Mr. Karsner and his wife are multilingual, have visited every continent and more than a hundred nations for work and pleasure, and reside with their growing family in Alexandria, Virginia.

Karsner was nominated by President Bush in December 2005, unanimously confirmed by the Senate as America's ninth Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and sworn-in as a member of the sub-cabinet by Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman in March, 2006. See his confirmation hearing testimony to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. (PDF 17 KB) Download Adobe Reader.

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