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Glenn Schleede, Energy Policy Expert, Dead at 83

Glenn Schleede, one of the most significant and least known figures in U.S. energy policy over the past 50 years, died May 7. He was 83. The cause of death was glioblastoma, a brain cancer he had been fighting for several years.



Glenn Schleede

Schleede served as a policy analyst and advisor to three Republican presidents—Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. During the Ford administration, Schleede played a key role in developing the U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policy. In the Reagan White House, he was the number three official in the Office of Management and Budget.

From 1976 to 1980 (the Carter years), Schleede was the senior policy advisor to the National Coal Association, one of the most important and successful energy lobbies in Washington at the time.

Following the Reagan years, Schleede for 10 years was a top executive at the New England Electric System. In retirement, he did energy consulting and analysis for 20 years for his own firm, Energy Markets and Policy Analysis, from his home in suburban Virginia. He was a dedicated and sophisticated opponent of wind power projects, which he viewed as wasteful, inefficient boondoggles.

I knew Glenn well, dating back to 1979, both as a news source and as a friend. He was honest and forthright in his views. Unlike many in the Washington policy minuet, he never trimmed his positions to match the perceived preferences of his audience. He was fair and never resorted to personal attacks of those with whom he disagreed. In short, he was a person in short supply in Washington today.

Schleede graduated from Brockport (N.Y.) High School in 1950 and served in the U.S. Air Force from 1952 to 1956. He graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota in 1960, and later earned a master’s degree in industrial psychology from the University of Minnesota. Later he graduated from Harvard’s Advanced Management Program.

His wife of 58 years, the former Sandra Klafehn of Brockport, survives him, along with three daughters: Kristen Maddox of Dayton, Ohio; Kimberly Terzian of Hanover, Va.; and Kendall Parrott of McDonough, Ga., four grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

A memorial service will be held June 3 at 11 a.m. at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Ashburn, Va.