PAST EVENT
GSI Annual Policy Forum on New Jersey’s Energy Future
Wednesday, May 1, 2024 | 12:30 PM 05:00 PM
A day of issue-based discussions and networking opportunities was held on May 1, 2024 at the Hyatt Regency New Brunswick, featuring Keynote Speaker Mark P. Mills followed by a Strategic Leaders Panel: How Open are Open Records? Transparency in Government.
This annual bipartisan event goes beyond politics, convening experts with diverse viewpoints who are leading the conversation on the critical issues facing New Jersey.
Participants
Mark P. Mills
Mark Mills is Director of the National Center for Energy Analytics, a distinguished senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, contributing editor at the City Journal, faculty fellow at Northwestern University’s McCormick school of engineering, and co-founding partner in Montrose Lane, an energy fund. He was formerly the co-founder and chief tech strategist for Digital Power Capital, where co-founded and served as Chairman and CTO of ICx Technologies helping take it public in a 2007 IPO (later purchased by FLIR), and in addition served on numerous Boards, including as Chairman of a lithium battery start-up. And, for seven years prior to an acquisition in 2008 by HP, he was the independent director of EYP Mission Critical Facilities, one of the world’s leading data center design and engineering firms.
He is author of the book The Cloud Revolution: How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and a Roaring 2020s (Encounter Books), which rose to #1 in Amazon’s business planning & forecasting rankings. He authored, previously: Digital Cathedrals: The Information Infrastructure Era (Encounter Books, 2020), Work In The Age Of Robots (Encounter, 2018), and earlier co-authored with Peter Huber The Bottomless Well (Basic Books, 2015) which rose to #1 in Amazon’s science rankings, and about which Bill Gates said: “This is the only book I’ve ever seen that really explains energy.”
Mark’s online PragerU videos on energy and technology have been viewed over 10 million times. Mills writes frequently for various popular publications, including the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Forbes, City Journal, Real Clear amongst others. He has appeared on many radio and TV news and talk shows including CNN, Fox News, CNBC, PBS, NBC and ABC, and on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Mark was earlier a technology advisor for Banc of America Securities, and a co-author of the energy-tech investment newsletter, the Huber-Mills Digital Power Report, published by Forbes and the Gilder Group.
Mark has frequently testified before the U.S. Congress and briefed many State public service commissions and state legislators, as well as serving as an expert witness on energy-economic issues. Earlier, Mark founded and ran an energy technology consulting business serving several hundred clients. He served as a staff consultant to The White House Science Office under President Reagan, the (former) Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and the U.S. Department of Energy and several national laboratories. He worked as science advisor for the Atomic Industrial Forum, and spent the week of the accident at the site of Three Mile Island. He co-founded and served as Executive Director of Scientists & Engineers for Secure Energy where he worked with a number of the iconic scientists of the 20th century. Prior to that, Mills was an experimental physicist and development engineer in microprocessors and fiber optics, earning several patents for his work at Bell Northern Research (Canada’s Bell Labs) and at the RCA David Sarnoff Research Center. He holds a degree in physics from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.
Dianne Solomon
Commissioner Dianne Solomon was nominated by Governor Chris Christie to serve as Commissioner of the Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) on April 17, 2013, and confirmed by the New Jersey Senate on June 27, 2013. She was re-nominated and confirmed in 2017. In her time at the BPU, she served as President and as a member of the Governor’s Cabinet from January 14, 2014, through October 5, 2014. Commissioner Solomon was a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and served as Chair of the Committee on Critical Infrastructure. She also served on the Gas Committee and was selected by NARUC to serve as a representative to the Gas Technology Institute’s Public Interest Advisor Council and as a member of NARUC’s Natural Gas Partnership with the US Department of Energy.
Prior to Commissioner Solomon’s appointment to the NJBPU she served as Commissioner of the South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA), which is responsible for operating the Atlantic City Expressway, Atlantic City Airport and shuttle service in and around South Jersey.
Commissioner Solomon is a graduate of Rider University with a degree in Political Science.
Commissioner Solomon, along with her husband, Lee A. Solomon, a New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice, resides in West Berlin, NJ.
Dr. Ben Dworkin
Dr. Benjamin Dworkin serves as the founding Director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship (RIPPAC, pronounced: RYE-pack) at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. He began at this position in January 2018. With a focus on informing, engaging, and training Rowan students, faculty and the public, Dworkin is responsible for positioning the Institute at the nexus of applied politics and the issues of the day, further building on Rowan’s reputation at a leading research institution of higher education in New Jersey.
Under Dworkin’s leadership, the Institute offers programs and guest speakers focusing on both the practice of politics and citizen participation; supports students through academic and career development, internship placement and scholarships; and connects faculty and students from across the University with public entities to facilitate public policy research.
Additionally, Dworkin teaches courses in the Rowan University Department of Political Science. His scholarly work has been published in The Governors of New Jersey: Biographical Essays (Rivergate Books, 2014) and Handbook of Political Party Fundraising (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018), and he has spoken at numerous academic conferences.
As one of New Jersey’s most astute and widely quoted political analysts, he serves as a non-partisan commentator on political developments for media in New Jersey and nationally. He has appeared on numerous network and cable news shows, and is frequently quoted by all of New Jersey’s major newspapers and radio stations, as well as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, and The Los Angeles Times.
For the last three years, Dr. Dworkin has been named one of the most influential people in higher education in New Jersey.
Prior to launching the Institute at Rowan, Dr. Dworkin spent 10 years as Director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ. Dr. Dworkin earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science at Rutgers University. His undergraduate degree is from Princeton University.
He lives with his wife and three daughters in Cherry Hill, NJ.
Edward J. Forbes
Ed Forbes is senior director for opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network’s Atlantic Group, which includes publications in the Mid-Atlantic and New England states. Based at NorthJersey.com and The Record, Forbes oversees opinion reports for more than a dozen newspapers, including the Asbury Park Press, the Courier-Post and the Burlington County Times in New Jersey. Forbes also oversees statehouse coverage in Trenton and works closely with longtime NorthJersey.com columnists Mike Kelly and Charlie Stile.
Prior to joining The Record in 2016, he held a variety of leadership roles in the newsroom of The Journal News, the USA TODAY Network publication that serves Rockland and Westchester counties in New York.
Mayor Paul Muir
Paul Muir grew up in Mountainside, moving to Harding Township during High School, where he graduated from Delbarton School. After Delbarton, Paul graduated early from Bucknell University with a BSBA.
Paul is serving his 10th year as Mayor of Bethlehem Township, and 14th year on the Township Committee. Paul has served on Bethlehem Land Use Boards since 2001. As Mayor, Paul also serves on the Route 78/22 Economic Development Coalition and Hunterdon County Solid Waste Advisory Committee. Paul is the President of the New Jersey Conference of Mayors after serving on the Board of Directors and Executive Board for 9 years. Paul is also the Chair of the Intra Municipal Affairs Committee of the Legislative Committee of the League of Municipalities.
Paul is an active leader in the nonprofit world formerly as Executive Director of the Red Mill Museum Village as well as the Guild of Clinton President. Paul is currently a Board Member of the Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce, as well as Co-Chair of the Non-Profit Committee. He is the former Chair of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce Non-Profit Roundtable, now on the advisory committee where he was recognized as Non-Profit Leader of the year in 2022. Paul is President of Preservation New Jersey where he implements innovative initiatives for adaptive reuse of historic structures. Paul is a Paul Harris Fellow member of the North Hunterdon Rotary, 200 Club of Hunterdon County, and a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of Hunterdon County. Most recently Paul was the first Chief Development Officer of Imagine, A Center for Coping with Loss, where he directed all fundraising activities, communications and marketing. Paul is also a lifelong entrepreneur starting various businesses including metals recycling, commercial real estate as well as a nationally recognized award-winning automotive restoration business.