James A. Slutz is currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy (coal, oil and gas), responsible for leading the Office of Fossil Energy. At Ohio State University, Slutz received his B.S. degree from the School of Natural Resources and an MBA. From 1981 to 1992, he worked for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas. Slutz was Director of Indiana's Division of Oil of Gas until June 2002, when he was appointed deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Energy's Oil and Natural Gas Program. Slutz co-chaired the management committee for the National Petroleum Council study, “
Facing the Hard Truths about Energy.”