Peter R. Hartley

Professor and Baker Institute Fellow

Rice University (Houston, Texas)

Dear Colleagues

I draw to your attention two important items in this issue of Dialogue. The first discusses our 31st Annual North American Conference that is going to be held in Austin from November 4–7, 2012. The committee has been hard at work planning interesting plenary sessions, fun events and great opportunities to network. If you have not already made plans to attend, please do so now.

The second discusses our Salary Survey that will be ongoing as you read this issue of Dialogue. This is a new initiative for the USAEE, which we hope will provide a valuable service to many current and potential new members of the Association and become a biennial event. Extensive participation by our members is essential for its success, so I urge you all to take five minutes to complete the online, secure and confidential survey.

In the remainder of this letter I would like to share a few thoughts on the nature of our Association.

Robert Eric Borgström

Advisor on Energy Regulatory Policy & Management

(Washington, DC)

Dear Colleagues

Let me begin by thanking all of the USAEE and IAEE members from around North America who’ve contributed articles to make this issue of USAEE Dialogue our biggest to date!  In addition to 8 articles that cover a broad range of energy economics’ topics, we have a great write-up on our 31^st annual USAEE/IAEE North American Conference to be held in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 4-7, 2012, as well as a interesting analysis of attendance at our last three North American conferences (2009 in San Francisco, 2010 in Calgary and 2011 in Washington, DC). -- And please take note of USAEE's first-ever Salary Survey, details of which were recently sent to all USAEE members by e-mail. The broadest member participation will be of benefit to all of us!

USAEE is pleased to announce its first member salary survey. The purpose is to inform USAEE members of median compensation levels for a variety of categories such as field of employment, sector, years of experience, degree obtained, and geographic location. The survey encompasses professionals from industry, government, academia and research & consulting.

The information submitted will be treated with strict confidentiality. Meaden & Moore, an independent third-party accounting firm with no involvement in the energy sector, will use an on-line database to collect and process all the data. Only aggregated results will be reported, and then only where there are enough individual submissions to preclude any identification of individual data. No individual responses will be published or released.

We strongly urge all USAEE members to participate in order to produce more meaningful results.

Conference Program Co-Chairs:

Mina Dioun

President,

Dioun Energy Consultants (Austin, Texas)

and

Peter Nance

Senior Principal,

Teknecon Energy Risk Advisers (Austin, Texas)

On behalf of Conference Program Committee we invite you to visit the scenic, hilly, and unique city of Austin, Texas to attend the

31^st USAEE/IAEE North American Conference.

Karl Nalepa

President and Managing Director,

R J Covington Consulting (Austin, Texas)

Mark B. Lively

Utility Economic Engineer

(Gaithersburg, Maryland)

Gal Hochman

Associate Professor,

Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey)

and

David Zilberman

Professor

University of California, Berkeley

Fereidoon P. Sioshansi

Editor & Publisher, EEnergy Informer

(Walnut Creek, California)

Craig Marlowe

Consultant to the Maryland Task Force on Solar Water Heating

(Takoma Park, Maryland)

Travis Fisher

Economist,

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Washington, DC)

David A. Foti

Professor of Economics,

Lone Star College (Houston, Texas)

Matt Jordan

Program Director

OurEnergyPolicy.org (Washington, DC)

Vlad Shkolyar

Independent Energy Consultant

(London, Ontario, Canada)