Just over six months in office, President Obama decides to issue a new Executive Order on energy efficiency. President Obama has decided that energy efficiency is the best way to meet the multiple goals of reducing dependence on foreign oil and gas, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, and creating millions of new “green” jobs. He consults with Professor Rob Socolow, Co-Director of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton University, and his concept of “stabilization wedges.” A stabilization wedge is a reduction of 25 gigatons of carbon emissions over 50 years worldwide. The President is in search of the best path for the United States to do its part.

 Specifically the group will address:

What should be done, and by whom, to bring about the changes necessary to significantly reduce the use of energy by the U.S. in buildings, transport and electricity that will lead to a considerable reduction in carbon emissions? Participants should consider three time frames: near-term (3-7 years), mid-term (10-20 years), and long term (up to 50 years). They should analyze the education, political, economic, social equity, environmental, technical and legal aspects of each wedge.

Therefore, in the order, he sets the three energy efficiency “wedges” as a target to be reached by 2059: 

1. Increase the average fuel efficiency of every vehicle in the United States to 60 mpg

• This can also include mass transit or reducing vehicle miles driven.
• This should be consistent with Obama’s first Executive Order on energy that called for one million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015

2. Implement the best known energy efficiency practices in every residential, commercial and government building in the U.S.

• This means using the best technology available in 2009 for space heating and cooling, water heating, lighting, and electric appliances. 

3. Double the efficiency of every coal-fired power plant in the U.S., or halve the greenhouse gas emissions from every coal-fired power plant.

• This can be at the plant level (e.g., more efficient turbines), or at the system level (e.g., cogeneration of electricity and heat)
• This can include carbon sequestration

Students attending the summit will complete a paper addressing the educational, economic, social equity, technical, legal, and environmental  aspects of the above wedges.  They will post research online in the "View student research" section of the forum on this website.  Once at the summit, participants will share the results of their collective research and discuss their recommendations from the perspectives of their assigned stakeholders.

 Attending the Summit will be 40 people representing different sectors of society:
• Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) composed of environmental groups
• Public Sector, including federal, state and local government agencies
• Private Sector, including corporations and organizations that are large point-source emitters of greenhouse gases, building suppliers, and the   transportation industry.