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Isaac Orr

Founder and Vice President of Research, Always On Energy Research

Isaac Orr is a founder and Vice President of Research at Always On Energy Research, where he conducts energy modeling and writes about energy and environmental issues, electricity policy, and natural resource development. His writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the New York Post, The Hill, and many other publications. He and his colleague Mitch Rolling have modeled the cost and reliability impacts of Environmental Protection Agency regulations in the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator and Southwest Power Pool. They have also evaluated the cost and reliability implications of energy policies in more than twelve states. Isaac grew up on a small family dairy farm in Wisconsin, so he cares deeply about the issues affecting rural America.

From 2013 to 2018, Orr was a research fellow for energy policy at The Heartland Institute. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire with studies in political science and geology, winning awards for his undergraduate geology research before taking a position as an aide in the Wisconsin State Senate, where he served as lead-office writer and as a policy advisor on frac sand mining and agricultural issues.

In 2013, Orr wrote a Heartland Policy Study on fracking titled “Hydraulic Fracturing: A Game-Changer for U.S. Energy and Economies” and coauthored multiple policy studies on frac sand mining in 2015, including “Environmental Impacts of Industrial Silica Sand (Frac Sand) Mining” and “Economic Impacts of Industrial Silica Sand (Frac Sand) Mining.” In 2018, Orr coauthored a series of Heartland Policy Studies on coal, the first of which was titled “How the Premature Retirement of Coal-Fired Power Plants Affects Energy Reliability, Affordability.”

Orr’s work on fracking is also featured in an upcoming book entitled Alternative Energy and Shale Gas Encyclopedia, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. He has also recorded more than a dozen podcasts on energy and environment topics for Heartland.

Orr writes, “I grew up on a dairy farm, and I want to preserve rural America, and rural American values. Along with agriculture, I am fascinated by geology, mining, groundwater, and other environmental issues.”