Environmental Defense Fund welcomes new Associate Vice President, US Climate and Energy

(New York, NY – July 18, 2013) Today, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) announced the hire of Cheryl Roberto as Associate Vice President, US Climate and Energy.

Roberto served as the Commissioner of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) from 2008 to 2012, where she was the lead commissioner for PUCO’s partnership with the United States Department of Energy combined heat and power pilot project. She was also Co-Chair of the 2012 National Electricity Forum, which centered on envisioning a future electric grid.

Roberto has distinguished herself in the area of energy efficiency. She currently serves on the Executive Group of the State and Local Energy Efficiency Action network (SEEAction) and received the Inspiring Efficiency Leadership Award from the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance in January 2013.

In addition to her experience as PUCO Commissioner, Roberto was the head of the City of Columbus, Ohio Department of Public Utilities. During her four-year tenure as the chief executive officer of municipal distribution utilities, she managed a team of over 1,300 employees, directed a successful water quality environmental initiative and completed the first restructure of utility rate models in two decades.

In her new role at EDF, Roberto will apply her many years of utility leadership experience to lead the organization’s national “EDF Clean Energy” campaign. Through regulatory reform and new utility incentives, among others, EDF’s clean energy initiatives aim to modernize our outdated energy infrastructure, accelerate the deployment of cutting-edge, clean technologies into the nation’s electric system and break down the regulatory and financial barriers to broad-scale adoption of renewable energy, energy efficiency and other innovative ways to generate, distribute and use energy.

Putting the right policies in place to accelerate investments in clean, homegrown energy will address the need for reliable power and reduce harmful pollution sharply, while spurring economic development, creating jobs and helping America gain a global leadership position in the multi-trillion dollar clean energy economy.