Governor David Paterson has announced that the State University of New York at Stony Brook will lead the New York Energy Policy Institute, in partnership with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Syracuse University.

 

Together with a growing list of partner institutions from across the state, they will coordinate the states energy policy research and serve as a resource for the state's policymakers on both current and future energy challenges.

The NYEPI will complement existing state energy policy research already being conducted at various state-run and public-private institutions. Stony Brook's current technology programs, including its co-management of the nearby U. S. Department of Energy Brookhaven National Laboratory and its operations of the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center are expected to aid the partnership in its policy research.

The NYEPI was created at the recommendation of the Task Force on Diversifying the New York State economy through Industry-Higher Education Partnerships, which was created by Paterson last May to examine how the state can better utilize its university-based research and development resources to drive economic growth. The goals of NYEPI include advancing the Governor's ‘45 by 15' initiative, whose aim is for New York State to reduce electricity use 45 percent by 2015.