Department Hosts First Energy Ethics Conference

The first conference on Ethics and Changing Energy Markets: Issues for Engineers, Managers, and Regulators (EnergyEthics 2004) was held on-campus in October 2004. Presentations during EnergyEthics ranged from opening talks setting the regulatory, economic, and ethical framework, to forward-looking recommendations for better handling of ethical problems in the new market environment.

Speakers included Beth McLean Fortune Magazine and co-author of “The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron;” Anthony Earley, chief executive officer of DTE Energy; Indira Nair, vice provost for education and professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU); Vernon Smith, the winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics and professor of economics and law at George Mason University; and Patrick Wood, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

According to Ken Sauer, associate professor of electrical engineering and the 2004 local organizing chair, feedback from participants has been very positive, and it is likely that the 2006 conference will be held at CMU, Notre Dame’s co-sponsor for EnergyEthics. For more information on the conference, visit http://energyethics2004.nd.edu/si.html.

Copyright 2004. University of Notre Dame.