The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) is a non-profit that works in the heart of the
national political arena. This small organization is something of a hidden gem among the 
environmental giants in D.C., with a wide-reaching impact and a network of relationships with NGOs, policymakers, agencies, and industry.
EESI is strongly committed to remaining non-partisan. Though the organization was initially founded by Congress in 1984, today it receives no congressional funding, allowing EESI to remain a trusted, non-partisan source of information for both policymakers and private citizens.
Much of EESI’s efforts are directed at Congress. Its staff works on Capitol Hill briefings, fact sheets, issue briefs, articles, and newsletters focused on key current environmental issues. Despite only having around 10 full-time staff members, EESI is able to pursue a broad range of issue areas, including climate, biomass, sustainable agriculture, transportation, buildings, and on-bill financing.
Writing Opportunities Galore
As part of my Bard CEP coursework, I’m working as one of EESI’s policy interns. One of the big components of my job is contributing to two weekly newsletters—Sustainable Bioenergy, Farms, and Forests (SBFF) and Climate Change News (CCN). CCN includes 8-12 one-paragraph news stories, summarizing the climate news from the previous week. Working on this newsletter has forced me to continue my Communications class work in being as succinct as possible in my writing.
SBFF is usually one longer article, around two pages, which allows me to do a deeper dive into a variety of current topics. One of the articles I wrote for SBFF got picked up by a trade publication, Forest Business Network, which was really exciting! Another was circulated by the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition. I’ve written four articles for SBFF:
EESI summer interns at the White House
- New Senate Bill to Address Fire Borrowing Clashes with Administration’s Approach
- House Bill Promotes Innovative New Building Material: Wood
- More Than One Billion Tons of Sustainable Biomass Could Be In Our Future
- EPA Releases Endangerment Finding for Aircraft, Good News for Biofuels
In addition to working on these newsletters, I’ve had the chance to write several spotlight articles for the EESI website. These articles have also allowed me to do some research and get a good grasp on a range of environmental policies. So far, I’ve had three of these articles published on the website:
- EPA Unveils New Details for Clean Energy Incentive Program
- Columbus, Ohio, Wins Dept. of Transportation Contest
- Globally, Air Pollution Is Fourth Largest Killer, Causing 6.5 Million Deaths Annually
Trips to Capitol Hill
I’ve also helped out at some of our events. On July 12, we held our largest event of the year, the Annual Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO + Policy Forum. I listened to some great panels, met people from a variety of organizations and companies, heard several Congressional speakers (including my hometown representative, Paul Tonko!), took pictures, and made a valiant effort to keep speakers within their time limits.
We also held a briefing on July 19 on Building a Billion-Ton Bioeconomy. This briefing brought in experts from the Department of Energy and the USDA to discuss the new 2016 Billion-Ton Report, which I wrote an article about for SBFF. The event was well attended, and was a great chance for me to see agencies in action.
Transitioning to a Thesis
I went into this internship without a clear idea for my capstone work. I have a lot of interests in climate policy, and I just wasn’t sure how to narrow them into something that would keep my interest through such a big project. When choosing a place to intern, I wanted one that would help me focus my thoughts, which can be a real challenge for me.
Having the opportunity to work on such a wide range of topics here at EESI has given me a chance to start identifying what my key interests are (and aren’t!). I’m happy to have the chance to go wide with my internship before going deep with my capstone project.
Becca,
It sounds like your internship has been action-packed so far! I’m happy to hear that you have the opportunity to continue your writing and communications skills. I’m sure the experience will treat you well! I enjoyed your article about the “timber innovation act.” I’m not going to lie, from the headline I thought I was reading an Onion News piece about the wonderful building powers of wood! But as I read deeper, it is interesting how much thought has gone into this bill. I’m still not sure how comfortable I would be at the top of a seven-story wood building. Best of luck on the remainder of your internship!
Sounds like an interesting and challenging internship, lots of policy writing and a birds eye view of the political process and networks in Washington DC. Looking forward to hearing more about it and seeing what you choose to write about for your thesis. Good luck, Monique
Hi Becky! Scott here from the new EP class. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your internship so far, and also your articles on sustainable biomass, the new details for CEIP, and smart cities. It sounds like you’ve been busy! I feel a lot like you did, in the sense that I have many interests that I hope to narrow down over the course of this program. You say that you’ve started to identify your key interests (and non-interests) with your internship, and I was wondering if you could briefly shed some light on how that process has unfolded for you over these past few months? And maybe you could even share what one or two of those key areas has turned out to be, and if they’re what your “orientation-week self” might have expected.
Hi Scott,
Thanks for the comment. I’d say that going through the classes in the first year helped give me some ideas about my interests. When trying to come up with a thesis topic, what helped me narrow it down was talking about my really broad idea to a lot of people. They’d ask questions or give suggestions, and figuring out which ones I liked or hated helped me decide which direction to go. One interest I never would have anticipated orientation week is sustainable agriculture- Jen’s class was really wonderful and was a topic I’d never really been exposed to before.
Hi Becky,
Your internship sounds like a great exposure to myriad issues, both on the environmental side and the political. And it’s awesome that your work is being recognized and picked up so quickly! Having a combination of journalism, research and conference planning, with such a small organisation, must keep you on your toes.
The articles you wrote on expanding the use of wood in construction and increasing biomass production were particularly interesting. How does the institute choose what topics to cover? Or do you have more of a free hand in exploring what is relevant?
Relatedly, I noted the great pains EESI goes to to assert it’s non-partisanship. However, are there any challenges that you’ve seen from the often political nature of reporting facts in DC?
Thanks, and look forward to hearing more about your work at EESI!
Joe
Hi Joe,
Thanks for the comment and questions. EESI has broad topic areas that are decided between the staff and board of directors, and then there’s more leeway in choosing what to cover within those topics. I work on biomass and sustainable agriculture, so I decide whether I’ll be writing about energy or perennial grasses depending on what happens that week- if Congress introduces a relevant bill, if a big study comes out, etc. I haven’t really run into any challenges with remaining non-partisan, particularly as feelings about biomass are not really split along partisan lines- it’s more of a rural vs urban split.