The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO JOSEPH W. AIDLIN” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1014 on June 1, 2011.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO JOSEPH W. AIDLIN
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HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of Joseph W. Aidlin of Los Angeles County, California, who was a pioneer in the geothermal industry and development of law for geothermal resources, and institutional matters related to development and use.
Born on April 28, 1910 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Russian immigrants, Joseph's family moved to California in the 1920's, settling in the Los Angeles area. When the Aidlin family moved to Long Beach, the Signal Hill oil field was being developed and it was there--
watching oil wells being drilled--that Joseph became fascinated with oil and other mineral exploration, a life-long interest. Despite a love of science and an inclination to attend Caltech, Mr. Aidlin majored in economics at UCLA, receiving his B.A. in Economics with honors in 1930. He received his law degree from UC Berkeley, Boalt School of Law in 1933 and was admitted to the California State Bar, after which he began practicing law. His practice included divorces, wills, and taxes and a particular case involving an oil company and tideland boundaries that sparked his life-long interest in land titles and natural resources.
Along with his law practice, where his most recognized accomplishments had been in land titles and natural resources, especially geothermal, Mr. Aidlin influenced geothermal activities fundamentally in numerous other ways for many years. In 1954, he and his partners, B.C. McCabe and Robert Bering, co-founded Magma Power Company which ``created modern geothermal development at the Geysers Geothermal Field, which is to say geothermal development in California, the United States and the Americas.'' Joseph served as Vice President, Secretary, General Counsel and Member of the Board of Directors of Magma Power Company until 1987. Mr. Aidlin co-founded the Geothermal Resources Council (GRC), and he was the first recipient of a prestigious award given to the person contributing most to the geothermal industry, the Joseph W. Aidlin Award. A leader in writing national and state legislation relating to geothermal resources, Mr. Aidlin drafted the world's first geothermal lease, contributed to having the Geothermal Resources Act being made a part of California's Resources Code in 1968 and participated substantially in developing provisions of the Federal Geothermal Steam Act of 1970. He was a member of the National Geothermal Advisory Committee of the Department of Energy and Chairman of its Legal and Institutional Subcommittee, and a member of the Geothermal Energy Panel of the Energy Research Advisory Board of the Department of Energy.
Joseph and his wife Mary were married for 63 years. After Mary's death in 1997, Joseph continued to work at his law practice beyond his one-hundredth birthday on April 28, 2010, making him the oldest active lawyer in California. Mr. Aidlin died peacefully in his sleep on September 30, 2010. A pioneer and a man of great principles, I ask all members to join in me in remembering Joseph W. Aidlin.
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