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Fax: 337-475-5286
Box 91735
Lake Charles, LA 70609
engineering@mcneese.edu http://mcneese.edu/ceet/eng

Engineering - ENGR 456

Engineer’s Role in Public Policy

• Explain how public policies differ from the policies of private corporations.
• Understand how codes and standards are developed in the United States and other countries.
• Define the public affairs activities of concern to industry including providing public information, influencing governmental activities, interfacing with non-governmental organizations (NGOs),  etc.
• Discuss the role of various trade and professional organizations in public affairs activities.
• Identify public policies and corporate policies that may affect engineers who work in industry.
• Define an “issue” and more specifically a “public policy issue.”
• Develop a flow chart showing how issues are identified, how legislative proposals and positions are developed on both sides of issues, and the process for ultimately developing public policies (laws).
• Identify the emerging technologically based public policy issues that may have the greatest effect affect our economy, security, and way of life.
• Discuss why engineers should be involved in public policy development.
• Discuss how engineers can develop attitudes, disciplines, and skills to be apprised of public policies and affect future public policy development.
• Identify the key technology and energy policy issues in various time frames (1900, 1973, current, future)
• Understand how energy policy issues relate to other policy issues (the economy, infrastructure, sabotage and terrorism, international relations, the environment – sustainability and global climate change)
• Describe the structure and operations of the U.S. Federal Government with emphasis on the role of the Executive Branch and Legislative in making laws, the role of the Judicial Branch in interpreting laws, and the role of the Regulatory Agencies in the enforcing laws.
• Describe the structure and operations of State Governments – with particular emphasis on Louisiana.
• Describe the structure and operations of Local Governments – with emphasis on Calcasieu Parish and the City of Lake Charles.
• Relate the political process and current campaigns or elections to energy policy positions.
• Discuss how the role of the media is changing and influencing energy policy development.
• Identify positions taken by industry and environmental advocacy groups relative to key energy policy issues.
• Critically examine published policy positions and draft alternative policy positions.
• Understand how to use “one-pagers” and other methods to “manage issues” and effectively communicate with Members of Congress and other elected or appointed officials.
• Discuss why sound engineering and scientific analysis should support policy positions rather than “unqualified opinions” or flawed science.
• Describe total energy use in the United States compared with total energy use in other countries.
• Describe the reasons for the trend to use more energy in the form of electricity in the U.S.
• Understand why deregulation and power marketing was imposed upon the electric utility industry. 
• Describe the adverse effects of deregulation by studying reliability problems and the Enron scandal.
• Discuss trends in U.S. electric power generation (coal units, natural gas units, nuclear units, hydro units, oil units, renewable energy, etc.)
• Understand how scientific facts and political perceptions are influencing the development of policies concerning the global warming or climate change issue.
• Understand the past, current, and future importance of oil usage in the U.S. and other countries.
• Discuss how oil availability and price affects transportation in the U.S. and how transportation in turn affects other vital issues.
• Calculate the environmental and oil dependency effects of having higher Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFÉ) standards.
• Describe the problems and benefits associated with using ethanol and other similar fuels for transportation.
• Discuss U.S. energy policy with particular emphasis on oil issues (exploration, development, dependence on foreign sources, refining capacity, environmental impacts, international trends, etc.)
• Understand how off-shore oil technology is changing and how Louisiana and other coastal locations will benefit from increased development of off-shore oil.
• Describe the advantages and disadvantages of using nuclear power for electricity generation.
• Compare the U.S. nuclear power industry with the nuclear power industry in France.
• Describe how U.S. and foreign nuclear accidents have influenced public perception.
• Discuss the role of engineers as spokesmen and policy advocates on nuclear power.
• Understand the current U.S. position on storing nuclear waste and other possible options.
• Compare the effects of coal mining operations with the effects of uranium mining operations.
• Describe the advantages and disadvantages of using coal as a fuel for electricity generation.
• Describe the debate leading to the “Clean Air Act” and it’s amendments.
• Discuss “Clean Coal Technologies” and their affect on air emissions.
• Describe the advantages and disadvantages of using natural gas as a fuel for electricity generation.
• Discuss trends toward the increased use “liquefied natural gas” and how Louisiana is involved.
• Compare central station generation options with distributed or dispersed generation options.
• Understand the past and current role of hydraulic power and pumped storage hydro facilities.
• Discuss the current role of renewable energy technologies and the practical factors affecting their economics and reliability.
• Calculate the cost of energy from solar energy as compared to the cost of energy from conventional central station sources.
• Identify the most promising renewable energy technologies for the future.
• Discuss future energy technologies that exist in theory but have not been demonstrated.