John P. Schmitz
Senior Advisor, Energy Transition
Contact
Description
John P. Schmitz serves as a senior advisor to EDF’s Energy Transition team, helping to advance work on clean transportation, EU ETS reform, CORSIA, alternative fuels and methane mitigation. As a consultant to EDF, his work spans aviation and methane policy in the EU and especially Germany, corporate partnerships via his leadership role on the Sustainable Aviation Buyer’s Alliance and coalition building that advances engagement with policymakers and civil society on key energy regulations.
Over more than three decades working at the intersection of U.S. and European policy in government and in leading transatlantic private sector companies, John has cultivated a broad and lasting network of relationships across government, industry and civil society that helps advance EDF’s mission.
Background
Schmitz served as Deputy White House Counsel to President George H.W. Bush and worked extensively on the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments — the law that established the first national cap-and-trade system. He also led the White House Forests for the Future Initiative, collaborating with G-7 nations and leading tropical forest countries.
Schmitz spent more than 15 years building Mayer Brown’s German and European practice — including opening the firm’s first Berlin office in 1993 — and was among the first Americans admitted as a Rechtsanwalt to the Berlin Bar. He has served on the boards of the Atlantic Council, the American Council on Germany, C2ES (formerly the Pew Center on Global Climate Change), the Aspen Institut Berlin and the Friends of Dresden.
Schmitz received his J.D. from Stanford University Law School in 1981 and an M.S. in economics from the California Institute of Technology in 1978. He graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University in 1976 with a B.A. in economics.