Mar. 11--A nonprofit organization devoted to determining the cost benefits of developing alternative fuels and reversing climate change will be based on the University of Tulsa campus, officials announced Tuesday.

The National Energy Policy Institute, started with $8 million from Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser's family foundation, will be housed in the Twin Towers, TU President Steadman Upham said, as first reported on tulsaworld.com. The remodeled former dormitory should be ready by summer.

The university's role will be to help channel industry experts, host conferences and provide academic rigor to the NEPI study.

"We know that domestic energy is the linchpin of our nation's progress," Upham said.

Former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles, who is NEPI's first executive director, spoke on campus Tuesday for the second annual Chesapeake Energy Lecture. He also signed a letter of intent on the partnership between NEPI, TU and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The NEPI study will take up various strategies -- such as whether the purchase of electric cars is worthy of tax credits -- and apply a cost-benefit analysis, Knowles said.

"We have no national energy policy," said Knowles, a former North Slope oil-field worker. "What we have is the sum of all lobbies, not the sum of our best wisdom."

Each strategy will be tested by a metric related to how much it saves compared with buying imported oil and funding dictatorships and terrorist havens,

he said. The various strategies will be ranked according to their relative cost benefits.

The next step will be to encourage policymakers to seek the necessary strategic changes.

Kaiser, president and CEO of Kaiser-Francis Oil Co., pointed out that the NEPI program is not unrealistic and does not ignore the long-term need for fossil fuels.

"Oil and gas also are renewables: it just takes a lot longer to renew them," he joked.

The nonprofit group will start out with only two employees -- including Knowles -- but will contract with various energy experts to conduct a study on viable alternatives to importing oil from hostile nations.

The NEPI already is teaming up with Washington D.C.-based Resources for the Future. Researchers from TU, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and others will work together to come up with the best market-driven answers to weaning the nation off imported oil and cleaning up the environment, Knowles said.

He added that the U.S. can either lead or be left behind in the race for green technologies. The available strategies include everything from demand-side technologies such as smart grids to fleets of government vehicles running on compressed natural gas.

"New energy is the democracy ticket," Knowles said. "It will define the difference between the haves and have-nots."

Knowles grew up in Oklahoma and later served as mayor of Anchorage. He was Alaska's governor from 1994 to 2002 and lost another bid for the office in 2006 to Sarah Palin, last year's Republican vice presidential candidate.

National Energy Policy Institute

Objective: To develop alternative energy options that are clean, cost-eaective and marketdriven.

Origin: $8 million and initial four-year commitment from George Kaiser Family Foundation.

Headquarters: University of Tulsa campus.

Partnerships: TU, Resources for the Future, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, others.

Short-term goal: Conduct study outlining national energy strategies by this fall.

Long-term goal: Encourage policymakers to begin implementing those strategies.

Rod Walton 581-8457 rod.walton@tulsaworld.com

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