President Robert Kelley appointed to National Energy Panel President Robert O. Kelley has been appointed to a prestigious 15-person Energy Initiative Advisory Committee by the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). “Clearly, this appointment underscores our stated commitment to maximize and advance the contributions of UND as a public research university to the country's energy independence effort,” said Kelley. “UND also has pledged to do its part to curb global warming by committing to the 'American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment,' Kelley said. “And we are already in the active process of finding ways to dramatically reduce our own contributions to greenhouse gases. At 2 p.m. Monday, April 20, in the Memorial Union North Ballroom, UND's Campus Committee for Climate Neutrality will begin a University-wide meeting on how to achieve the goals of Climate Commitment. The campus community is invited to attend." You can find out about some of the things UND is already doing at http://und.edu/greenandclean/ . APLU President Peter McPherson said the new national panel reflects the importance to the country of energy independence, one of the key items on the Obama Administration's national agenda. “America's public and land-grant universities are a critical resource to achieving this goal,” McPherson said. Basically, this initiative is about maximizing and advancing the contributions of public research universities to the nation's energy independence effort and strategic reduction of climate impacts. By signing the President's Climate Commitment, UND set in motion the process for developing a plan over the next several years to achieve climate neutrality, Kelley said. For UND, there's a secondary, but likewise vital, consequence of reducing the University's energy usage and carbon footprint, Kelley said. “We want to reduce energy costs and thus operating costs,” he said. As part of its long-term energy efficiency strategy, UND is committed to establishing a policy by which all new campus construction will be built at least to the U.S. Green Building Council's LEEDs silver standard or its equivalent, Kelley said.