People in the news

David Sandalow

Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs, Energy Department (since May 2009)

(America.gov)

Why He Matters

David Sandalow drives a plug-in electric car, and though it might seem to be simply his way of getting around, it's also at the crux of his plan to change America's energy system.

"Oil dependence is a problem we can solve," he said in a 2008 interview in which he touted plug-in vehicles as a key part of the solution. "We have the political consensus and the technological opportunity. This is a moment to seize." As Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs, Sandalow is poised to help the Energy Department do just that. The role establishes his spot as a principal adviser to Secretary Steven Chu on energy policy and as a coordinator of the department's involvement in foreign policy.

In His Own Words

“If I’m thirsty and don’t feel like a glass of water, I can have soda or orange juice. If I’m hungry and don’t feel like eating a hamburger, I can have a hot dog or pasta. But if I want to travel any significant distance in the world today and don’t want to use petroleum, I’m basically out of luck.”

More on: David Sandalow

At a Glance
Path to Power
The Issues
The Network
Additional Resources

Background

At a Glance

Career History: Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution (2004-2009); Executive Vice President, World Wildlife Fund (2001-2003); Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment & Science (1999-2000)
Hometown: Washington, D.C.
Alma Mater: B.A.-Yale University (1978), J.D.-University of Michigan (1982)

Spouse: Holly Hammonds
DC Office: U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20585 Phone: 1-202-586-5000
Web site

Path to Power

Born in Michigan, Sandalow majored in philosophy at Yale University in 1978 and returned to his home state to study law at the University of Michigan, where he earned his J.D. in 1982. During his Senate confirmation hearing, Sandalow recalled the summer he spent as an exchange student in Shanghai, China, in the early 1980s, at a time when the first groups of American students began traveling there following the normalization of U.S.-China relations. While on that trip, Sandalow said, he would take a cab to the Heping Hotel on weekends to use the one international phone line in the entire city. On a return visit in 2008, Sandalow noted that his Blackberry automatically connected to a local wireless network and he effortlessly sent emails home as soon as his plane touched the ground. This contrast, he later remarked, speaks to his vision for the transformation possible for energy technologies.

After graduating from law school, Sandalow got a job at the Michigan Department of Commerce and then worked as a lawyer in private practice. His first position with the federal government was as an attorney in the office of general counsel at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In the 1990's, Sandalow worked on environmental issues in the Clinton administration, serving as an associate director on the staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and as a senior director on the National Security Council. In 1999, he became Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment & Science to President Clinton and helped manage U.S. diplomacy relating to the environment, science, and technology.

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Following the Clinton presidency, Sandalow became executive vice president of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), where he oversaw field-based conservation, research, and advocacy projects. In 2003, he joined the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan nonprofit think tank. He started out as a guest scholar in the Foreign Policy Studies program, analyzing conservation and global environment issues, and stayed on as a senior fellow from 2004 to 2009. During his time at Brookings, Sandalow focused on energy policy research, with subjects ranging from climate change to oil dependence to plug-in electric cars.

In 2007, Sandalow published a 272-page book, Freedom from Oil: How the Next President Can End the United States' Oil Addiction. In it, he laid out a six-point plan for whomever the next president would be to transform America's energy supply and policy. He called for the government to switch to plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles and for Washington to fund Detroit with the money needed to do the same. Among his other proposals were retrofitting supply pumps for alternative fuels, federal investment in mass transit instead of highways, increasing the gasoline tax by 10 cents a gallon each year for five years, and asserting energy efficiency as a diplomatic priority. He also wrote that the government should spend $1 billion every year on renewable energy research. (President Barack Obama announced in March 2009 that he would invest $1.2 billion in such research at the Energy Department's national laboratories, as part of the $59 billion in economic stimulus money and $150 billion from the federal budget he has committed to the country's "clean energy future.")

Sandalow has also served as Chair of the Energy & Climate Working Group of the Clinton Global Initiative, a globalization organization in which he was a key player after having worked with President Clinton on relevant environmental issues in the White House. In addition, Sandalow advised Barack Obama's presidential campaign, has been a senior adviser to efficient energy investment firm Good Energies, Inc., and was cochair of the American bar Association's annual conference on environmental law. He has also been a volunteer election observer in the Philippines and instructed election observing in Nepal.

The Issues

Sandalow wants to see dramatic change in the way we use energy and the way it is dealt with in American diplomatic policy. He believes the government should play a major role in developing new energy technologies to mitigate reliance on foreign oil, but beyond this, his vision for transforming global energy use over the next few decades is for as profound a shift as communication has experienced over the past quarter century.

"Our dependence on petroleum is the result of decades of support by big government," he said in a 2008 interview, adding later, "Big government already plays a central role. The only question is, are we going to use big government to move away from oil, or to continue its dominance."

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On the cover of Sandalow's book, Al Gore is quoted, "When David Sandalow writes about energy and the environment, we should all pay close attention."

Diplomacy and Dependence on Foreign Oil

At a hearing called, "Rising Oil Prices, Declining National Security" in May 2008, Sandalow testified before the House committee on foreign affairs. He explained that in the past year, more than 96 percent of energy for U.S. vehicles came from oil. "This seems normal to us," he said. "We grew up in a world in which oil was the only fuel used to move cars and trucks. So did our parents. So did our grandparents. But it is fundamentally abnormal for the entire global transportation system to rely on a single commodity."

He went on to say, "If I'm thirsty and don't feel like a glass of water, I can have soda or orange juice. If I'm hungry and don't feel like eating a hamburger, I can have a hot dog or pasta. But if I want to travel any significant distance in the world today and don't want to use petroleum, I'm basically out of luck."

Speaking from a foreign relations standpoint, Sandalow listed reasons why this is problematic. He said that reliance on fuel from a war-torn region makes America vulnerable to resentment and attack as the United States. is drawn into an ancient religious conflict overseas. He added that this jeopardizes troops stationed in Iraq and other places around the Middle East. In addition, Sandalow remarked that many leading oil exporters support policies that threaten the United States-Iran, for example-and that oil wealth trends against free democracy and towards corrupt government.

Now, as the DOE's assistant secretary for policy and international affairs, Sandalow is set to lead the way on diplomacy and energy policy. This means not only turning his attention away from the Middle East, but also looking for solutions in other directions. Sandalow plays a key part in America's relationship with China as the two countries with the world's highest greenhouse gas emission levels seek to cut back their impact in the battle against climate change. On the global scale, he joined an administration seeking to negotiate a new climate policy agreement in anticipation of the Kyoto framework expiring in 2012. The United States is merely a symbolic signatory of the Kyoto treaty and refused to ratify it, though Obama has expressed his desire to actively participate in negotiating the new one, which will likely take major strides in coping with environmental threats and reducing future greenhouse gas emissions.

Plug-in Electric Cars

Sandalow's plug-in electric car gets 30 miles on a charge, and then automatically changes over to run on gasoline. Every night, he plugs it into an outlet in his garage. This is his vision for a new generation of American energy use. As he told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2008, "To help end the United States' oil dependence, there is no higher priority than putting millions of plug-in electric vehicles on the road soon."

He has written and given speeches on why plug-in electric cars are a "game-changing technology," notably calling upon Congress to provide tax incentives for buying these vehicles and asking the federal government to promote their development. These include a 10-cent per gallon tax increase on gasoline, each year for five years. After four presidents have tried- largely in vain-to increase the gasoline tax, Sandalow has suggestions to quell political opposition, such as rebates for low and middle-income families.

Alternative Fuels

In addition to his enthusiastic support of plug-in electric cars, Sandalow promotes further solutions to reducing American reliance on foreign oil, particularly alternative energy sources. He believes the government should support research into not only electric vehicles, but also into those that run on wind and solar energy.

More generally, he has emphasized a switch in energy supply from fossil fuels to ethanol, biofuels, and low-carbon gas. To research these sources, Sandalow said, "We should be pursuing a wide range of possibilities with a combination of private sector and government funding. Government funding should go into basic science and technologies that are furthest away from market applications. No one can predict where the breakthroughs will come, and we need to be pursuing several options." Still, he has described himself as a cautious optimist when it comes to biofuels, since he observes that they are not all created equal when it comes to their environmental impact.

The Network

Sandalow will advise Energy Secretary Steven Chu on energy and international affairs. During his confirmation hearing, Sandalow voiced support for Chu and his desire to promote President Obama's agenda.

Additional Resources