October 2023 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1973 oil embargo imposed by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) in the wake of the Yom Kippur/Ramadan War. The temporary shortages inflated energy prices, jolted the global economy, and destabilized geo-political relationships around the world. The crisis also inspired new science and technology policies and several innovations, including alternative nuclear, solar, wind, and geothermal energy sources and more fuel-efficient automobiles.
Today, we are again witnessing a resurgence in creative policy solutions and new energy innovations to address the ongoing challenges of war, energy scarcity, inflation, and the environmental impacts of climate change.
In this online symposium, a distinguished group of historians, technology innovators, journalists, and policymakers will discuss the lessons we can learn from the 1970s and how they might be applied to address our present-day challenges and opportunities.
The symposium is co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation; Arizona State University’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes; and Johns Hopkins University’s Department of History of Science and Technology and Department of the History of Medicine.
About
The live recording of New Perspectives on Energy Innovation is now available, click here to watch.
Today, we are again witnessing a resurgence in creative policy solutions and new energy innovations to address the ongoing challenges of war, energy scarcity, inflation, and the environmental impacts of climate change. In this online symposium, a distinguished group of historians, technology innovators, journalists, and policymakers will discuss the lessons we can learn from the 1970s and how they might be applied to address our present-day challenges and opportunities.
The symposium is co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation; Arizona State University’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes; and Johns Hopkins University’s Department of History of Science and Technology and Department of the History of Medicine.
Program
The live recording of New Perspectives on Energy Innovation is now available, click here to watch.
Session 1: (Mis)Remembering 1973: Crisis and Innovation
The year 1973 conjures images of long lines at gasoline pumps, lower thermostats, and a new 55 mph speed limit. But the United States did not run out of oil when the OAEPEC embargo began in October. Rather, the resulting price hikes were merely the latest disruption to an unstable energy sector already beset by earlier fuel shortages and widespread electrical blackouts. The federal government debated various policy responses, including robust conservation measures, expanded domestic energy production, and a new Department of Energy. Meanwhile, the crisis forced the energy companies to confront the geo-political risks and environmental costs of fossil fuel extraction. For about a decade, the big oil companies advocated for limited growth and “sustainable development” of the energy sector, while investing in alternative nuclear, solar, wind, and geothermal energy sources. However, the energy companies eventually decided to double down on fossil fuels and began to actively sow doubts about the causes of climate change. How do we remember—and how have we misunderstood—the causes and reverberations of the 1970s energy crisis? How did the federal government, energy companies, and everyday citizens react? What kinds of energy policies and technological innovations emerged from the crisis, and which potential solutions proved to be unsustainable? What contemporary lessons can we learn from a more nuanced understanding of 1973 and its aftermath?
Brief welcome and introduction to the symposium
Panelists:
- Meg Jacobs, Senior Research Scholar, School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
- Cyrus Mody, Professor, History of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Maastricht University
- Richard F. Hirsh, Professor, Department of History, Virginia Tech
Moderator:
- Eric S. Hintz, Historian, Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, Smithsonian Institution
A short 5-10 minute break
Session 2: Energy Innovations for 2023 and Beyond
“History may not repeat itself,” Mark Twain once quipped, “but it rhymes.” Indeed, the events of 2023 have echoed the events of 1973. Another war—this time in Ukraine—has precipitated energy shortages, inflation, and geo-political disruptions. The specter of climate change is everywhere, in the form of heat waves, wildfires, and flash floods. The federal government has responded by building clean energy, smart grid, and climate resilience measures into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021) and the Inflation Reduction Act (2022). We certainly see more wind turbines, electric cars, and solar farms, yet fossil fuel production continues apace. How have the events of the past half century informed the ongoing fears and guarded optimism of our present moment? What policies, new technologies, and consumer behaviors will be required to mitigate the climate crisis? What are the barriers to energy innovation? And how do we imagine the future of energy and society in the next fifty years?
Panelists:
- Robinson Meyer, Founding Executive Editor, Heatmap
- Kelly Cummins, Acting Director, Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, Department of Energy
- Clark Miller, Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, and Director, Center for Energy & Society, Arizona State University
Moderator:
Arthur Daemmrich, Director, Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes, Arizona State University
Speakers and Moderators
The live recording of New Perspectives on Energy Innovation is now available, click here to watch.
Speakers
Kelly Cummins, Acting Director, Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, Department of Energy
Kelly Cummins is the Acting Director for the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) at the US Department of Energy (DOE). In this role, she is responsible for delivering more than $25 billion in funding to support large-scale clean energy demonstration projects. Ms. Cummins has worked in the field of national and energy security at DOE for more than 20 years. She has held leadership positions in DOE’s Office of Science, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Defense Programs, and NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation. She also served as a Senior Advisor to former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz from 2013-2017. Prior to joining DOE, Ms. Cummins worked in the US Senate and in the private sector. Ms. Cummins has a Master of Science degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
A professor of History of Technology and Science & Technology Studies at Virginia Tech, Richard Hirsh began his career writing about astronomy performed from outer space (published as Glimpsing an Invisible Universe in 1983). After working with a municipal utility system, Richard turned his attention to the recent history of electric power networks, publishing Technology and Transformation in the American Electric Utility Industry (1989) and Power Loss: The Origins of Deregulation and Restructuring in the American Electric Utility System (1999). In an unusual twist for someone who largely focuses on contemporary policy-oriented concerns, Richard wrote Powering American Farms: The Overlooked Origins of Rural Electrification (2022), which reveals the relatively successful efforts to energize farms in the years before the federal government created the Rural Electrification Administration in 1935. Richard’s academic background is somewhat unusual: he holds a MS degree in Physics and a Ph.D. in the History of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Meg Jacobs is the author of Panic at the Pump (Hill and Wang, 2016), a book that explores the energy crisis of the 1970s. She teaches history and public affairs at Princeton University.
Robinson Meyer is the founding executive editor of Heatmap, a new media company focused on energy and climate change. He was previously a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covered climate change, energy, and technology, and co-founded the COVID Tracking Project. Rob was previously a visiting fellow in journalism at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. In 2021, he received the American Society of Magazine Editors’ NEXT Award for Journalists Under 30.
Clark Miller is a theorist and designer of inclusive techno-human futures, especially in the context of deep decarbonization. His central passion is wringing as much total upside for humanity as possible out of a transition to net zero economies and societies, including fairer and more equitable political economies of energy, enhanced democracy, human security, and indigenous sovereignty, the end of extreme poverty and energy and environmental injustice, and a healthy planet and environment for all. In his day job, he is a Professor and Senior Global Futures Scientist at Arizona State University in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, the College of Global Futures, and the Global Futures Laboratory and Director of the Center for Energy & Society. He also serves as a member of the National Academies Committee on Accelerating Decarbonization of the US Energy System.
Cyrus Mody is director of the Maastricht University Science, Technology and Society Studies (MUSTS) research program, Principal Investigator (PI) of the Dutch Research Council (NOW) project Managing Scarcity and Sustainability (VI.C.191.067), and co-PI of the European Research Council Synergy project NANOBUBBLES (951393). He is the author of three monographs with MIT Press, most recently The Squares: US Physical and Engineering Scientists in the Long 1970s (2022).
Moderators
Arthur Daemmrich is director of Arizona State University’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes (CSPO). He has led or participated in projects studying pharmaceutical innovation and regulation, chemical risk, healthcare systems, and sports technology; he is currently researching the history of US technology policy. Daemmrich has published in the fields of science and technology studies, history of technology, medical sociology, and business policy. He was previously director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and has held academic appointments at the University of Kansas School of Medicine and Harvard Business School. Daemmrich earned a PhD from Cornell University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Eric S. Hintz is a historian with the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. Eric curates exhibits; produces the Center’s annual symposium series; coordinates the Center’s fellowship and grant programs; and assists in the collection of historically significant artifacts and documents. Eric’s research explores the history of invention, innovation, and R&D. He is the author of American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D (MIT Press, 2021) and co-editor of Does America Need More Innovators? (MIT Press, 2019). Eric earned his MA and PhD in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania.
