Joseph J. Romm

Dr. Joseph Romm was Principal Deputy and then Acting Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in the mid-1990s, overseeing a $1 billion budget on climate solutions for transportation, buildings, and industry, including hydrogen, fuel cells, energy storage, bioenergy, and renewables. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media, where he researches climate solutions. In 2009, Rolling Stone named him one of 100 "People Who Are Reinventing America," and Time named him "Hero of the Environment." He has authored 11 books, including the original edition of The Hype About Hydrogen, which was named one of the best science and technology books of 2004 by Library Journal. His TEDx talk is "The surprising truth about solving climate change." He holds a PhD in physics from MIT.

Straight Up

America's Fiercest Climate Blogger Takes on the Status Quo Media, Politicians, and Clean Energy Solutions

In 2009, Rolling Stone named Joe Romm to its list of "100 People Who Are Changing America." Romm is a climate expert, physicist, energy consultant, and former official in the Department of Energy. But it’s his influential blog, one of the "Top Fifteen Green Websites" according to Time magazine, that’s caught national attention.

The Hype About Hydrogen

Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate

Lately it has become a matter of conventional wisdom that hydrogen will solve many of our energy and environmental problems. Nearly everyone -- environmentalists, mainstream media commentators, industry analysts, General Motors, and even President Bush -- seems to expect emission-free hydrogen fuel cells to ride to the rescue in a matter of years, or at most a decade or two.

Not so fast, says Joseph Romm.

Cool Companies

How The Best Businesses Boost Profits And Productivity By Cutting Greenhouse-Gas Emissions

Despite ongoing negotiations, consensus has not yet been reached on what action will be taken to combat global warming. A number of companies have looked beyond the current stalemate to see the prospect of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions not as a roadblock to growth and innovation but as a unique opportunity to increase profits and productivity. These "cool" companies understand the strategic importance of reducing heat-trapping emissions and have worked to cut their emissions by fifty percent or more.