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Scott Segal

Job Title: 
Co-Chair of the Policy Resolution Group
Organization: 
Bracewell

Scott Segal is co-chair of the firm’s Policy Resolution Group, the government relations and strategic communications section at Bracewell. He has more than two decades of experience across a broad range of policy and communications issues, with particular experience dealing with energy, the environment and natural resources. Other areas of experience range from healthcare to financial services to trade and manufacturing issues. A practicing lawyer, Scott assists clients with effective participation in the legislative and regulatory processes. Additionally, Scott helps guides clients with strategic planning and communications in changed circumstances through public-affairs initiatives, monitoring, advocacy and negotiations with the United States Congress and administrative agencies of the federal government. He has testified before Congress and administrative agencies numerous times on matters related to energy and environmental policy.

Well informed on clients’ issues of concern, Scott recognizes that his media contacts are looking for actual, real-world experience on important issues, not just message management. He is an articulate spokesman for Fortune 500 corporations on sensitive and progressive issues such as climate change, energy legislation and regulation, the Clean Air Act and fuel additives. He also is recognized as a reasonable, well-versed spokesman on broader energy and environmental issues and is quoted regularly in the national media, including offering commentary on network television and radio.

Scott taught law, policy development and communications at the University of Maryland (University College) and at Johns Hopkins University. Earlier in his career, he served as director of forensics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Alex Beehler

Job Title: 
Former Assistant Army Sec. for Energy & the Environment
Organization: 
Department of Defense

Alex A. Beehler served as as Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Environment, Safety and Occupational Health) from 2004 to 2009.

Mr. Beehler served as the principal assistant and advisor to Deputy Under Secretary Grone for all environmental, safety, and occupational health policies and programs in DoD. Those programs include cleanup at active and closing bases, compliance with environmental laws, conservation of natural and cultural resources, pollution prevention, environmental technology, fire protection, safety and explosive safety, and pest management and disease control for Defense activities worldwide. He also advises Mr. Grone on international military agreements and programs pertaining to environmental security.

Mr. Beehler's priorities included the implementation of DoD's environmental readiness initiative in response to challenges of encroachment, the Defense Environmental Restoration Program, unexploded ordnance management, explosive safety, and pollution prevention.

Mr. Beehler came to the department from Koch Industries where he served as Director of Environmental and Regulatory Affairs and concurrently served at the Charles G. Koch Foundation as Vice President for Environmental Projects. Mr. Beehler maintained a strong background in federal environmental policy having served in the Department of Justice as a senior trial attorney for environmental enforcement and at the Environmental Protection Agency as a special assistant for legal and enforcement counsel.

Mr. Beehler is a member of the District of Columbia, State of Maryland and Commonwealth of Virginia bar associations. He received a bachelor’s degree from Princeton (1975) in public and international affairs and a law degree from University of Virginia (1978).

Spencer Pederson

Job Title: 
Senior Vice President of Public Affairs
Organization: 
National Electric Manufacturers Association

Spencer Pederson is Senior Vice President of Public Affairs for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) where he is responsible for all aspects of the association’s government and public relations.

Spencer spent over 13 years on Capitol Hill, most recently for Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) where he served as senior policy advisory to the Senator while he sat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and then on the Senate Finance Committee, where he helped Sen. Scott author his successful Opportunity Zone legislation, and reform the 45J nuclear production tax credit, among other policy achievements.

Before his time with Sen. Scott, Spencer served as Press Secretary for the House Natural Resources Committee, as well as legislative assistant and later, the communication director for Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA).

Prior to his work at NEMA, Spencer served as Vice President of Government Affairs at the Consumer Brands Association and before that as Director, Federal Affairs at the American Chemistry Council, leading the association’s advocacy for rail, transportation, and infrastructure issues.

He graduated from the University of Redlands in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and a Bachelor of Arts in History. Spencer is originally from Bishop, California and currently lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with his wife and two sons.

Shon Hiatt

Job Title: 
Director of the Business Energy Transition Initiative
Organization: 
University of Southern California

Shon Hiatt is an associate professor of business administration, director of the Business of Energy Transition initiative, and faculty affiliate of the Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. He researches entrepreneurship, strategy, innovation and sustainability, with an emphasis in energy and agribusiness. His work has been published in leading academic journals and featured in popular media outlets.

He has received several awards for his scholarship and teaching, such as the Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship in Entrepreneurship, the Academy of Management and ARCS Emerging Scholar Awards, and the Golden Apple Teaching Award. Before joining USC, he was a faculty member at Harvard Business School.

Bob Deans

Job Title: 
Director of Strategic Engagement
Organization: 
Natural Resources Defense Council

Bob Deans  is the director of strategic engagement for the NRDC Action Fund, the 501(c)(4) affiliate of the nation’s leading environmental advocacy organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council. Deans joined the NRDC Action Fund after spending nearly three decades as a newspaper reporter, including a stint as Chief Asia Correspondent for The Atlanta-Journal Constitution and other Cox newspapers. A former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Deans is author of the 2007 book The River Where America Began: A Journey Along the James. He is the co-author of the 2009 book, Clean Energy Common Sense: An American Call to Action on Global Climate Change, and the 2010 book, In Deep Water: The Anatomy of a Disaster, the Fate of the Gulf, and Ending our Oil Addiction.

Linda Willard

Job Title: 
Counsel, Energy Practice
Organization: 
Dentons

Linda is a member of the Energy practice where she concentrates on energy, environmental, and infrastructure policy. Resident in the Washington, DC, office, Linda represents clients before Congress, the executive branch and other government entities. Her experience as a government affairs lawyer and public policy advisor spans the public and private sectors. She has served as a counsel to the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works; a lawyer in the Energy and Environment practice of a global law firm based in Washington; and counsel and senior policy advisor in a DC-based lobbying firm.

As counsel to the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Linda focused primarily on infrastructure policy in the areas of surface transportation and water resources. Linda also served as the lead staff member for nuclear safety, Tennessee Valley Authority, Clean Water Act/Section 404, oil pollution, federal emergency management, surface transportation and water resources development. She drafted and helped build a bipartisan coalition of 40 senators in support of, the Estuary Restoration Act. She also drafted legislative language, committee reports and hearing materials relating to the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century and two subsequent Water Resources Development Acts.

In addition to working for the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Linda served as a legal clerk for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, researching and drafting amendments to legislation before the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and conducted legal research for budget and tax issues in pending legislation before the Senate.

USEA Power Sector Podcast Episode 119: Grid Strategies Founder & President Rob Gramlich

March 6th, 2025

In today’s episode of the USEA Power Sector Podcast series on changing energy policy priorities under the new presidential administration and congress, Rob Gramlich, Founder and President of power sector consultant Grid Strategies, answered questions by journalist Herman K. Trabish about certainties and uncertainties around existing and new incentives and approaches to generation and transmission development as changing resources, spiking electricity demand, and extreme weather events add unprecedented stress to the US power system.

Ted Vatnsdal

Job Title: 
Executive Director for Strategy & Risk Management
Organization: 
MISO

USEA Power Sector Podcast Episode 118: Nuclear Innovation Alliance Research Director Dr. Patrick White

March 4th, 2025

In today’s episode of the USEA Power Sector Podcast’s series on changing energy policy priorities, Nuclear Innovation Alliance Research Director Dr. Patrick White answered questions from journalist  Herman K. Trabish about what to expect in power sector policy impacting advanced nuclear technologies under the new presidential administration and congress as changing resources, spiking electricity demand, and extreme weather events add unprecedented stress to the US power system.

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