Amy Oliver Cooke

Amy Oliver Cooke
Basic facts
Organization:	Always On Energy Research
Role:	Co-founder, president, and board chair
Location:	Greeley, Colo.
Education:	•University of Missouri •University of Northern Colorado

Amy Oliver Cooke is the co-founder, president, and board chair of Always On Energy Research, an organization that uses data and analysis to advocate for state and national energy policies. Cooke is also a visiting Energy Policy Fellow with the State Policy Network.

Cooke previously served as the CEO of the John Locke Foundation, in North Carolina, and the executive vice president and director of the Energy Policy Center at the Independence Institute, in Colorado. Cooke is married to Colorado State Senator John Cooke (R).

Biography

Cooke earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a master's degree in American history from the University of Northern Colorado. Cooke helped found Always On Energy Research in May 2024. Cooke joined the Independence Institute in 2004, and managed the institute's educational outreach programs throughout Colorado. She served as the organization's executive vice president from 2012 to 2020, and the director of its Energy and Environmental Policy Center from 2004 to 2020. From 2020 to 2023, she served as the CEO of the John Locke Foundation, a think tank.

Work and activities

Cooke regularly wrote op-eds about energy policy for state and national outlets.

Then President-elect Donald Trump (R) appointed Cooke to his Environmental Protection Agency transition team in December 2016.

Legislative and policy work

In 2015, Cooke contributed to the Independence Institute's efforts against the Jefferson County (Colorado) Board of Education Recall. The Independence Institute was the sponsor of a group called Kids Are First Jeffco, which spent $156,512.93 opposing the recall efforts. Cooke told the Colorado Independent that her opposition to the recall had to do with supporting school board members who supported school choice vouchers. She told the paper, "You need to advance choice in education by any means possible."

In 2010, Cooke and William Yeatman (of the Competitive Enterprise Institute) published a report detailing the costs of Colorado's Renewable Electricity Standard (RES). The two called the RES "an ill-advised law that forces consumers to use expensive, unreliable power with little 'green' benefit."

See also

• What is an influencer?
• State Policy Network
• Independence Institute
• John Cooke
• Jon Caldara
• Colorado

External links

• Always On Energy Research
• Amy Oliver Cooke on LinkedIn