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IEEE member Pete Pollak teaches electrical engineering at Northern Virginia Community College, but for two consecutive weeks last summer, he and five other faculty members reached a much younger audience.

IEEE has recently initiated several projects designed to bring together a “broad array of resources to provide expertise and guidance for those involved in Smart Grid worldwide.”

IEEE-USA held its first annual Energy Fly-In to help stress to legislators the importance of formulating energy policy that bolsters economic activity, better protects the environment and promotes national security.

Plug-in-Hybrids: Accelerating Progress Symposium — Part 1 is now available as IEEE-USA’s latest e-book. Bill Williams, a senior IEEE-USA legislative representative on the IEEE-USA Government Relations staff, compiled “Part I: Electrification, Fuel Economy and the Environment” from an exciting IEEE-USA co-sponsored symposium held in the Fall of 2007.

In late December 2007, President Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security Act (H.R.6). The bill requires auto manufacturers to improve fuel economy standards to 35 mpg by 2020, and boosts ethanol production five-fold by 2022. The legislation also includes a $95 million competitive grants program designed to spur electric vehicle technology development, as well as language calling on NIST to work with the IEEE and others to develop standards for emerging "Smart Grid" technologies. But does it do enough to achieve the nation's ambitious energy independence goals?

On 2 August, Congress passed landmark legislation designed to enhance U.S. competitiveness and innovation by increasing funding for basic research and improving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. President Bush signed the bill into law on 9 August.

On 15 February, President Bush signed into law a stop-gap spending measure that will keep the government running for the remainder of the fiscal year.

The IEEE Power Engineering Society (PES) and IEEE-USA’s Energy Policy Committee joined forces on 23 May to bring PES’ educational course, “Power System Basics for Non-Engineering Professionals,” to Capitol Hill for the benefit of congressional staff.

At the 3rd Annual Engineering R&D Symposium, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) underscored the urgent need for U.S. engineers to become politically active to protect their interests or risk losing their dominance to a quickly emerging, foreign high-tech industry.

The 2003 "Northeast Blackout" left more than 50 million people in the dark last August. What happened? The IEEE Power Engineering Society and IEEE-USA sponsored a “Blackout 101” forum for members of Congress and their staffs, to educate them on how North America’s electric power system works; what can go wrong; and how we can prevent future large-scale power blackouts.

In an unusual turn of events, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chair Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) put the Democrats' version of the energy bill to a vote, knowing this version would have a better chance of passing before Congress' August recess. What are the differences between this version and the Republicans' version? What happens from here?

The United States faces considerable challenges in maintaining leadership in the worldwide nanotechnology movement, as other countries are investing heavily in related research. IEEE-USA and others recently sponsored a congressional briefing to highlight the status and future of nanotechnology.