UC’s Washington Center (UCDC) & UC Davis energy policy advisors fostering information exchange on energy policy with fed officials

EFFECTING CHANGE: Serving as an Information Conduit

Anthony Eggert, center, with UCDC colleagues
David Brown and Carolyn Henrich at the UCDC
federal government relations office.

Mid-way through a six-month assignment as an energy policy advisor at the University of California’s Washington Center (UCDC), Anthony Eggert, an ITS-Davis doctoral student, is gaining hands-on experience in Washington and playing a critically important and new role fostering information exchange on energy policy.

Eggert’s goal is to help the UCDC staff connect the UC system’s bioenergy, alternative fuels, climate and innovation expertise with the information needs of members of Congress and their staffs through briefings, seminars and workshops.

“People here need and greatly appreciate good, objective information,” Eggert says, adding that he’s very excited about his interactions to date with “bright, intelligent Congressional and committee staffers.”

Eggert and his colleagues have found their hands full with this summer’s focus on energy legislation. In early June, UCDC hosted a briefing on California’s proposed Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Approximately 120 people, including members of Congress and their staff, government agency staff, public interest groups, academia, lobbying firms and industry, and international embassies attended the briefing. In the following days, Eggert linked Congressional policymakers with several UC researchers in response to the policymakers’ requests for additional information on California’s unique and successful efficiency programs.

“To be able to provide some of the world’s most up-to-date, relevant and cutting edge research and statistics, and to get this information to the people who needed it on a short timeframe is truly rewarding,” Eggert said.

“The pace of activity and the need for information here is immediate. In most cases we have, at most, a day to get information to the person who needs it. Our ability to make an impact is based on how effective we are at making a connection – person-to-person or person-to-information.”

The 375,000 students, faculty and staff are generating valuable research findings, much of it potentially valuable to policy makers, Eggert notes. “But it requires an extra step to take that information from its original format, usually a research report, and massage it into an easily digestible form where it can be applied by policymakers to solve real-world problems.”

Eggert’s assignment continues through October.