Nick Snow
Washington Editor
WASHINGTON, DC, Mar. 19 -- Carl Michael Smith has been named executive director of the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission, officials announced Mar. 18.
Smith brings to the position experience not only as a government official but also as an independent producer and energy attorney. From 2002 to 2004, Smith was assistant secretary for fossil energy at the US Department of Energy, advising then-Sec. of Energy Spencer Abraham on federal coal, oil, and gas programs, including research and development. He became a senior advisor in May 2006 in a Washington lobbying and consulting group which Abraham formed after leaving the federal government.
While he was at DOE, Smith also cochaired the US-China Oil and Gas Forum and chaired the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, a Bush administration 21-country initiative which seeks technical solutions to the capture and storage of carbon dioxide from energy generation facilities. He also managed the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve.
From 1995 to 2002, Smith was Oklahoma's energy secretary. In addition to overseeing the state's fossil energy policy and the activities of seven major Oklahoma energy agencies and commissions, he was then-Gov. Frank Keating's representative on the IOGCC (where he was vice chairman in 1999), the Southern States Energy Board, the Interstate Mining Commission, and the Governors' Ethanol Coalition.
Smith was president of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association in 1994 when he operated an Oklahoma City independent oil and gas producer. He also has practiced energy law and holds bachelor's and legal degrees from the University of Oklahoma.
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