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John H. (Jack) Gibbons stands among the most prominent of the early pioneers in energy efficiency at the interface of technology and policy in the U.S. Throughout his career he has played a pivotal role in advancing the efficient use of energy resources. Even very early in his career, in 1954, with a freshly minted physics PhD from Duke, arriving at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to launch a career in experimental nuclear physics, his passion for and family traditions of environmental conservation beckoned him to apply technology to environmental goals, setting the stage for a life-long career focus on energy conservation and efficiency.
These interests in the early 1960s drew him to responsibilities at ORNL as Director of the laboratory’s Environmental Quality Study Project to analyze the environmental impacts of power generation, which impressed upon him, again early in his career, how important consuming more efficiently can have enormous benefits for economy, environment and resources. Building on this work, Jack led the first comprehensive effort of the U.S. government aimed at the relationship between energy and the environment, forging an interagency agreement between the National Science Foundation and the Atomic Energy Commission. By the early 1970s Jack and his ORNL colleagues were among the earliest U.S. researchers to explore in detail technology and policy options for encouraging energy conservation in industry, residences, commercial buildings and transportation. Jack was the natural choice to be called to Washington in 1973, shortly before the start of the Yom Kippur War that triggered an Arab Oil Embargo and the Nation’s first energy crisis, to become the first Director of the U.S. Office of Energy Conservation (OEC), then part of the Interior Department.
The year 1973 was, of course, a crucial and formative time for developing the federal role in advancing energy efficiency, which to that point had been an essentially absent issue in federal policy. Under Jack’s stewardship the very first major policy initiatives to advance energy efficiency were crafted and navigated through the federal maze of executive orders, legislative initiatives, regulations and policy incentives. Mechanisms we take for granted now, such as “right turn on red” or the 55 mph highway speed standard, and many others were first put forward along with the seeds planted for today’s appliance efficiency standards, CAFE, and what would become the major federal R&D program in energy efficiency. All together this work stimulated and played a substantial if not pivotal role in starting down the road of the Nation’s sustained reduction in energy intensity for the next three decades.
As Jack left his OEC term in Washington, the Federal Energy Administration honored him with its first Distinguished Service Award for his pioneering work in advancing energy efficiency and upon his return to Tennessee he continued to retain his ties to shaping national policy by helping to sort out how to implement many of the ideas placed on the table at OEC. He also chaired the panel on analysis of energy demand and conservation of the National Academy Committee on Energy Systems, which laid out the enormous potential for raising energy efficiency. Jack’s return to Tennessee was brief as he was called again to Washington in 1978, this time to head the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) where energy efficiency became one of the agency’s most active areas of work for the Congress for almost two decades. Jack’s responsibilities at OTA had broadened considerably but his credibility and personal touch in the area of energy efficiency were widely recognized by Congressional committees and Members working in the area. He was consulted repeatedly for his entire time at OTA to help shape the Nation’s policy agenda for energy efficiency and, under his leadership, a major assessment of energy efficiency led to numerous legislative initiatives in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During this time he also played a key role in establishing the Energy Foundation.
In 1993 Jack was called to perhaps his most public career post as Presidential Science Advisor, confirmed by the Senate only days following the President Clinton’s inauguration. Jack’s experiences on Capitol Hill and his national lab, academic, and prior federal service all contributed to his success in raising energy efficiency to prominence in the National Science and Technology Council’s interagency coordination of energy R&D, the President’s Council on Science and Technology Policy activities helping shape federal R&D, which lead to a substantially increased federal R&D budget for energy efficiency, the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, which led to introduction of hybrid vehicles in Japan and laid the foundation for increasing market share of hybrids in the U.S. in recent years, and others.
Jack has been recognized for his contributions to science, technology, and public service with many honorary degrees and national and international awards. His energy message has been consistent, continuous, authoritative, wise, gentle, humorous, passionate, visionary and an effective voice for energy conservation and efficiency for over forty years. His leadership has produced and continues to produce significant savings in energy end-use throughout the economy. A 1979 plaque from his University of Tennessee colleagues proclaimed him “The Noblest Enviroenergist of all—First in Research, First in Service, and First in the Hearts of His Employees.”
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