Sep. 26--A Harvard University expert on competitive electricity markets will be the keynote speaker next month at the National Energy Policy Institute's conference on the University of Tulsa campus.

"Power for the 21st Century: Reinventing America's Energy Grid" is scheduled Oct. 7 in the Great Hall of the Allen Chapman Activity Center. It costs $50 and runs from 7:30 a.m. to about 4:45 p.m.

Harvard professor William W. Hogan is research director of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group. He has helped design competitive electricity markets in the U.S., England and Australia.

Former Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Jim Roth, who is an NEPI consultant, and former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles, who is NEPI's president, will offer insights and kick off the day's events. Corporation Commissioner Jeff Cloud, New Jersey utility commissioner Fred Butler and state Energy Secretary Bobby Wegener, among many others, will participate in panel discussions.

Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. owner George Kaiser's family foundation seeded $8 million to start the National Energy Policy Institute and base it at TU. The focus of the NEPI is to engineer a feasibility study of the nation's various energy options, with a goal of the U.S. cutting its oil imports from regions of the world that are sometimes hostile or unstable.

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

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