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During the middle to late 70's, in the post-Watergate era in the US, Jim Plummer set off to form a professional association of energy economists that would allow for the exchange of ideas, methods, data, and policy on a neutral, professional level that would be free of the bias and suspicions between the private, public and government sectors.
Plummer approached the American Economics Association with his idea, and was given a room at their New York City meetings in January of 1977. The room, which was said to hold 125 people, was standing room only when the meeting began.
Some of the charter members included Bill Hughes, Joy Dunkerley, Bill Johnson among others. The initial dues for membership was set at $10, and the membership count quickly surged to 175 members.
In late 1978, Plummer asked Mike Telson, who had been staff economist to the House Ad Hoc Committee on Energy (charged by Speaker O'Neill to draft the House version of President Carter's National Energy Act) to be General Chairman of the IAEE's first Annual Conference to be held in Washington, DC in June of 1979. In less than 7 months, a program for the conference had to be developed, first-rate speakers had to be contacted and confirmed, and a program printed and distributed for an organization that essentially had no membership and that few had ever heard of.
As a testament to the power of the idea that a neutral forum was needed to bring academics, industry and government together to discuss energy economics issues, it was relatively easy to get many people to work hard, over a very short period of time, to ensure the conference's success. Many people helped, among them: Mariano Gurfinkel, Bill Hogan, and Denny Ellerman, as well as those previously mentioned. The conference was able to attract top speakers -- such as Energy Secretary James R. Schlesinger and the first Chairman of Petroleos de Venezuela, Gen. Alfonso Ravard -- whose participation showed that the IAEE was an organization whose time had come.
Soon after, the group contacted colleagues in London and invited them to form a UK chapter to the organization. The group formed in 1979, and represented the UK at the first IAEE International Conference held in Washington D.C. later that same year. Early builders of the UK chapter, which was given the name of the British Institute of Energy Economics in 1980, were the late Jane Carter, Bob Deam, Richard Eden, and Paul Tempest.
The need to enhance the group by creating an official publication soon developed. After attempts were made to adopt an existing journal as the group's official publication, it was decided that IAEE would need to publish it's own, and the name "The Energy Journal" was selected.
Sam Schurr, who was President of IAEE in 1979, contacted Helmut Frank at the University of Arizona to see if the University would be willing to house such a publication. A University faculty meeting was held, where it was decided that the University should make a "serious bid to land the journal." Helmut, after relinquishing some of his duties for the University, agreed to be the editor and held the position until his retirement in 1989. Helmut oversaw the production of over 40 issues of the journal, along with multiple special issues.
Helping to lead the charge in developing IAEE Internationally was Morris Adelman, and through his and others efforts, the IAEE today has members in over 70 nations, along with 27 international affiliates. While the paranoia of the 70's may be over, IAEE still strives to provide a non-political, open, interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of information related to energy economics.
If you are interested in becoming a part of the world's largest group of energy economics, visit our membership section or contact us for more information.
A special thanks to Jim Plummer, Paul Tempest, Michael Telson and Campbell Watkins for their assistance in compiling this brief overview.
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