[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 77 (Wednesday, June 1, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1014]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO JOSEPH W. AIDLIN

                                 ______
                                 

                          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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