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March 22, 2024
It might be hard to believe, but there was a time before the World Wide Web. On Capitol Hill, where information is the currency of policy and politics, it was a darker time before the internet made it possible to see and know most anything with a few keystrokes and clicks. Congressional offices were already stretched thin by the early 1970s when environmental and energy policy shifted into high gear.
The American public was becoming increasingly alarmed by pollution and environmental degradation. Scientists like Rachel Carson, who wrote Silent Spring in 1962 to denounce chemical pesticides, exposed and called attention to connections between the environment and public health. High-profile incidents like the Cuyahoga River literally catching fire in 1969 became grim symbols of pollution gone amok.
Policymakers began to act, eventually delivering the Clean Air Act of 1970 and Clean Water Act of 1972 and establishing the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and Department of Energy in 1977. Members of Congress and their staff suddenly needed a reliable source of nonpartisan, science-based information that could help them devise new, effective environmental policies and oversee efforts to curb pollution already underway. That led a bipartisan group of members led by then-U.S. Rep. Richard L. “Dick” Ottinger (D-N.Y.) to found the Environmental and Energy Study Conference in 1975.
The mission of the Conference was to serve as an informal, reliable, non-advocacy legislative research and service organization that could provide Congress with unbiased, authoritative, and timely information about environmental and energy issues. A tall order, indeed. But it was just what they needed. In a few short years, 295 representatives and 85 senators from across the political spectrum had joined the Conference.
In October 1981, the House Committee on Administration adopted new rules that put the viability of the Conference in serious jeopardy. In response, Conference leadership decided to form an independent nonprofit that would continue the Conference’s valuable work. By 1983, a board of directors chaired by former U.S. Reps. Ottinger and Thomas B. Evans (R-Del.) took shape and announced the establishment of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. EESI’s programmatic work started the following year and focused on environmental protection in developing countries, groundwater protection, hazardous waste management, and alternative energy development. Notably, the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was flagged as an area of concern for future work.
From the start, EESI was tasked by its leadership with building a foundation for informed debate on environmental and energy issues, which would result in renewed bipartisan consensus and innovative, balanced, actionable policy solutions. It was essential to ensure that the educational resources produced by EESI were non-partisan in order to foster bipartisan understanding and cooperation. This prerogative continues today.
EESI Vice-Chair Rep. Thomas B. Evans (R-Del.), 1983
Throughout the years, many former members of Congress have served on EESI’s board, including Rep. John H. Buchanan (R-Ala.), Rep. Joseph L. Fisher (D-Va.), Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.), Rep. Paul N. McCloskey Jr. (R-Calif.), Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Maine), Rep. Gilbert Gude (R-Md.), Rep. John F. Seiberling (D-Ohio), Rep. L. Richardson Preyer (D-N.C.), Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.), Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), Sen. James M. Jeffords (R then I, Vt.), Sen. Charles S. Robb (D-Va.), Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), Rep. Anthony Beilenson (D-Calif.), Rep. Bob Edgar (D-Pa.), and Rep. Claudine Schneider Cmarada (R-R.I.). Former U.S. Rep. Philip R. Sharp (D-Ind.) most recently joined the board of directors in November 2023.
Forty years after our work started, EESI continues to provide educational resources about climate, clean energy, and environmental topics to our core audience—Congressional staff. As the times changed, so has our approach. In 1988, EESI released a policy statement declaring that the “emergence of the global warming problem creates an imperative for action that cannot be ignored” because the “failure to act could well bring economic, environmental, and human disaster previously unimagined.” Starting with that declaration, and continuing through the present, EESI has conducted its policymaker education work with climate change in mind.
EESI helped establish the Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus in 1996 and helped host the first Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO and Policy Forum in 1997. These day-long educational events feature presentations by dozens of climate and clean energy leaders and experts and offer opportunities for emerging technology companies to interact with policymakers. Each year, EESI organizes or participates in briefings—some held in coordination with the Caucus and other organizations—to reach as many Congressional offices as possible and forge new relationships with key staff.
As the world moved online, EESI developed our website—www.eesi.org—in 1999 to provide a free, easy-to-access repository of all our educational policymaker resources. Our website has evolved over time to meet the needs of ever-mobile staff who need access to EESI whenever they have a question to research, wherever they are. Today, our website is home to almost 20 years of archived recordings of Congressional briefings as well as thousands of articles, fact sheets, issue briefs, reports, and podcasts.
The 118th Congress is very different from the 98th Congress, which was in session when EESI was founded, in ways that mirror changes in society. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced Congress (and most everybody) to go (mostly) online in 2020, EESI followed suit by switching over to an all-virtual briefing format that lasted about two years. We also realized that it might be harder for Congressional staff to watch briefings in real-time without the draw of in-person networking, so we started putting more emphasis on written summaries. Now that EESI briefings are back on Capitol Hill, staff are once again attending in person. But we also know that many staff choose to watch (or listen to) briefings online to help them find balance in their busy days and get all the information they need about climate, clean energy, and environmental topics.
How will the information needs of Congress change in the future? Nobody can know for sure, of course. But there are some good bets. Climate change will get worse before it abates, and it will affect more people in more ways than before. The amount of information overload will only increase, especially as artificial intelligence becomes more mainstream, which will make it harder to cut through the noise and find the best information. And Congress will be Congress, tasked by the public to act and so always in need of non-partisan, science-based information to inform its debates and deliberations. Sounds like a job for EESI.
Authors: Daniel Bresette and Amaury Laporte
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