Supply of electricity is essential to the economic and social well being of countries around the world. It lies at the very centre of the global economy and is a critical component of productivity, human development, health education and social development.

The Council for Clean and Reliable Electricity was created to promote public debate on electricity in a neutral and non partisan forum. To date, conferences have been held on keys issues including coal and carbon sequestration, biomass, distributed generation, nuclear power and public sector governance in the electricity sector.

I invite you to review the conference programs, speaker presentation and information on our website, and consider attending our upcoming conferences in 2012. One area that we will focus on going forward is to broaden the governance debate at the municipal and local distribution level.

I am also pleased to introduce our new publication the CCRE Commentary that will be published six times a year allowing for reasoned opinions and points of view on timely and relevant electricity sector issues to be presented.

The Council will continue to seek out opportunities to support non partisan discussion on energy with input from academia, public and private sectors, labour and the consumer. We welcome your comments and contribution to the energy debate.