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EPA Fellow Honored For An Energy Strategy
(April, 2003) Dr. Deborah Feder, an environmental fellow in EPA's National Center for Environmental Research (NCER), recently received the 2003 J. Warren Nystrom award from the Association of American Geographers. The award and honorarium are presented annually for the top doctoral dissertation in geography in the United States.
The core idea of Dr. Feder's thesis is that the environment can be protected even as energy needs are met. She would accomplish this by adopting a broader focus for energy analysis, expanding traditional economic and technological approaches to include local considerations within a region. An example would be to study topography and wind behavior in an area before deciding whether to supply energy with fossil fuels or an alternative such as wind power. "This geographic component is lacking from most energy strategies," the Columbus, Ohio, native says.
A framework which Dr. Feder uses, in addition to a geographic focus, is called "end-use" analysis. Originally proposed in the 1970s, and applied to a limited extent in electric utility management programs, end-use analysis looks at how energy would be used and attempts to match that use with the most appropriate supply source, seeking more efficient and cost-effective energy use. As an example, such a study might find that a particular water heating need could be met with solar thermal heating instead of fossil fuels.
In including end-use analysis in the energy formula, says Dr. Feder, "I have suggested a strategy that minimizes the environmental risks and political and economic vulnerabilities associated with the U.S. reliance on certain non-renewable resources such as coal and oil. A consequence of this approach would be higher energy efficiency and greater use of renewable energy sources and other appropriate technologies." Also, by incorporating the concepts of regional geography and end-use analysis in her strategy, Dr. Feder would take advantage of nature's characteristics and human ingenuity and adaptability, to encourage a more creative, flexible approach to providing energy.
Dr. Feder's fellowship at the EPA, 
sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), began in September 2002. Her Ph.D. in geography was granted by The Pennsylvania State University in December 2001. She became interested in the topic of energy use while doing fieldwork on deforestation in Malawi, Africa. As a field research assistant there for the University of Illinois Department of Geography, she began to question whether solar technologies might be used in place of the population's almost total reliance on firewood for its fuel.
After returning to the U.S., Dr. Feder immersed herself in energy literature and was awarded a summer internship at the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Photovoltaic and Wind Technologies where she learned about the work being done on these resources. This experience guided her dissertation and ensuing fieldwork along with case studies in Centre County, PA.
In her current post at EPA as an AAAS Fellow, Dr. Feder is developing a model of population change and its impact on the environment, with a focus on the five-county region of the Los Angeles consolidated metropolitan statistical area. Dr. Feder's study is concentrating on how changing population compositions and distributions influence localized energy use and consumption patterns and how these estimated changes will effect regional air and water quality.
Additional information on the STAR program can be found at the (National Center for Environmental Research). For more information, contact Estella Waldman at Waldman.Estella@epa.gov.