Electrification the 20th Century's Greatest Achievement (Arlington, VA — March 13, 2000) Our vast network of electrification was the 20th Century’s greatest achievement according to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Speaking on behalf of the NAE, former astronaut/engineer Neil Armstrong, made the announcement at a press conference on February 22nd at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The location and lack of coverage the event received was all the more remarkable given the Clinton Administration’s "kill coal" bias and the fact that it is used to generate 57% of the electricity in the US. The engineering achievements, which also included computers (#8), high performance materials (#20) and safe water supply and treatment (#4) were nominated by twenty-nine professional engineering societies and were selected and ranked by a panel of the nation’s top twenty-nine engineers whose identity was kept secret during the process to assure unbiased deliberations. The distinguished group included Armstrong, a past Director of Los Alamos Laboratory and member of the team that developed the first nuclear fission reaction (Harold M. Agnew), both former and current Presidents and Chief Executive Officers of corporations and institutions like Lockheed Martin, Beckman Instruments, Eastman Kodak and Motorola, Qualcomm, Shell Oil, Argonne National Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and the National Academy of Engineering. They included Vice Presidents of Sun Microsystems and Ford Motor Company, a Nobel Laureate, the inventor of a technique for correcting distortion of telephone signals during high speed data transmission, a pioneer in microelectronics technology, an inventor and developer of agricultural technologies, and a pioneer in materials research and aerospace alloys. Current and past scientific advisors to Presidents and heads of NASA were part of the panel along with a former Undersecretary for Technology and a Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Director of the Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at NIH, and a representative of engineering academia. "One hundred years ago, life was a constant struggle against disease, pollution, deforestation, treacherous working conditions, and enormous cultural divides unbreachable by with current communications technologies," begins the NAE’s press release announcing the designation. "By the end of the 20th century, the world had become a healthier, safer, and more productive place, primarily because of engineering achievements." Greening Earth Society President Fred Palmer, who also is General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of Western Fuels Association, Inc., says it sounds as though the National Academy of Engineers adapted a page from his speeches around the country extolling the virtues of fossil fuel use and coal-fired electricity. "The automobile was #2 on the NAE list and the airplane #3. Interstate highways were #11 and petroleum and gas technologies #17, both preceded at #10 by air conditioning and refrigeration technologies," he says. "Show that list to your typical environmental lobbyist professional without identifying what it designates and they would tell you it represents everything that is wrong with life as we know it. Electronics, radio and television, agricultural mechanization, space exploration, household appliances and nuclear technologies are all on the NAE list. Maybe the only things that would make the cut at Greenpeace and the Sierra Club are telephones, the Internet, health and imaging technologies, laser and fiber optics, and high performance materials – none of which would be possible or necessary without electrification – powered by cheap and abundant domestic coal." For more information on the awards and the significance of the most important engineering achievements of the 20th century visit .