Council on Competitiveness, Department of Energy Partner Around Clean Energy and Manufacturing Competitiveness

Lisa Hanna
Vice President, Communications
Council on Competitiveness
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202-383-9507

(Washington, D.C) – The Council on Competitiveness and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) announced today the American Energy and Manufacturing Competitiveness Partnership (AEMC), a three-year effort to bring together national leaders to address a rapidly shifting national and global energy landscape – and to uncover actions that can be taken now to enable America to build on this distinctive time in its energy history over the next five to ten years and to dramatically bolster its energy, manufacturing and economic competitiveness over the next 20, 30, 40 years and beyond.

The focus of the Council-EERE AEMC Partnership is two-fold: (1) to increase globally competitive, U.S. manufacturing of clean energy and energy efficiency products; and (2) to increase globally competitive U.S. manufacturing of products that benefit, or could benefit, from advanced manufacturing technologies and practices.

The announcement of the AEMC Partnership came from Assistant Secretary of EERE David Danielson during a ribbon cutting ceremony today for a new carbon fiber facility at Oakridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oakridge, TN. Participants included ORNL Director Thom Mason, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (TN-03), Council President & CEO Deborah L. Wince-Smith, and many others.

The AEMC Partnership is part of EERE's Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative (CEMI), which focuses on increasing U.S. competitiveness in the production of clean energy products and strengthening U.S. manufacturing competitiveness across the board by increasing energy productivity.

“One of America’s top, near-term priorities – and why we are excited to be here at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, launching the AEMC Partnership with Assistant Secretary Danielson and the Department of Energy – is to improve dramatically our economy, the prospects for U.S. job growth, our environment, our national security, and our standard of living,” said Deborah L. Wince-Smith. “The AEMC Partnership will help lead the United States to the forefront of a remarkable new era of technological advances, market and industrial transformation, and innovation at the core of future competitiveness.”

Over the coming year, the Council and EERE will work together across the country in the AEMC Partnership to define key barriers, challenges and problems in the manufacturing of clean energy products and energy efficient products – and then generate potential models for scalable, public-private partnerships, to increase the competitive manufacturing of clean energy and energy efficient products in the United States.

“This partnership is a critical platform off of which the private and public sectors can co-create and compete for a competitive advantage,” said Chad Evans, Council Executive Vice President. “The AEMC Partnership will kick-start a national movement to create solutions for a globally competitive, clean and energy efficient manufacturing enterprise.”

The multi-year AEMC Partnership will kick off with an inaugural leadership dialogue in Washington, D.C. on April 11-12, and will engage a distinctive stakeholder network from industry, academia, labor, the national laboratories, government and the non-profit community.

Over the course of the year, the Partnership will convene three additional regional dialogues, culminating in a major, annual, Washington DC-based, cornerstone energy and manufacturing summit in December.

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ABOUT THE COUNCIL ON COMPETITIVENESS

The Council on Competitiveness is the only group of corporate CEOs, university presidents and labor leaders committed to the future prosperity of all Americans and enhanced U.S. competitiveness in the global economy through the creation of high-value economic activity in the United States. The Council is a non-partisan and non-governmental organization.

Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative
www.compete.org