Ronald Minsk is a fellow at the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and a consultant in Washington, DC.
He was as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia in 2016. He recently served as Special Assistant to President Obama for Energy and Environment at the White House’s National Economic Council. Minsk served in a similar position from 1998 to 2001 in the Clinton White House, where he was a Director to the National Economic Council and Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.
Prior to returning to the White House, Minsk served as Senior Fellow and Senior Vice President for Policy at Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization committed to reducing America’s dependence on oil and improving U.S. energy security in order to bolster our national security and strengthen the economy. In that position, he was responsible for the development of energy policies dedicated to enhancing the United States’ energy security. After the end of the Clinton Administration, he was counsel in the Energy Practice Group at the Washington office of Alston & Bird where he represented investor- owned electric utilities, large regional independent system operators, and independent transmission companies before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). He previously worked as a policy analyst at the White House Office of Management and Budget. His work helped open the door to natural gas and crude oil exports, strengthened energy infrastructure, and solidified support for plug-in vehicles.
Outside of government, Ron has written and contributed to papers on a variety of energy- and transportation-related projects including co-authoring A National Strategy for Energy Security, a 120-page blueprint for reducing the United States’ dependence on oil and the Electrification Roadmap. He has advised stakeholders with an interest in renewable fuels policy and authored detailed comments about the Renewable Fuels Standard to the Environmental Protection Agency in 2017 and 2015. He also has advised clients with respect to fuel economy standards, policies to support alternative fuel vehicles, and domestic oil and gas production. He is currently managing a project at the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia examining the economic issues related to a carbon tax, and will co-author one of the project’s papers. He also co-authored of the chapter “Department of Energy — Implementing the New Energy Opportunity” with Elgie Holstein, in Change for America — A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President. Ron is a graduate of New York University (B.S. 1987), Harvard University (M.P.P. 1989) and the University of Pennsylvania (J.D. 1996).
