ASPO — Matt Simmons, Chairman of ASPO-USA's Advisory Board, died Sunday night at his home in North Haven Island, near Rockland, Maine.HTML clipboard 
The founder of Houston-based Simmons & Co. International, Matt wrote the 2005 book "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy," addressing concerns about Saudi Arabia's oil reserves and the impending peak of worldwide crude oil production.
Simmons also founded The Ocean Energy Institute, a think tank and venture capital fund in Rockland to promote offshore wind energy research and development.
The institute is a part of the consortium led by the University of Maine, which aims to design and test floating deep-water wind turbine platforms.
"Matt Simmons was an innovative thinker who pushed ideas that have the potential to yield a more environmentally and economically sustainable future for Maine and the world," said Maine Gov. John Baldacci, who attended the opening of the institute's headquarters last month.
Matt was an unstinting supporter of ASPO-USA and an outspoken energy reform advocate. He wrote and spoke fearlessly to warn us about the dangers of status-quo energy policy.
It is impossible to define Matt by any single aspect of his wide ranging interests or any one period of his life and work. He was a husband and father, an investment banker, an author, and a friend and visionary who lent his name and energy to the organization and evolution of ASPO-USA.
He will be missed by us all.
