CLEAN ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Monday, September 14, 2009
7:00 p.m.
107 Hesburgh Library Auditorium
Bowden Quinn
Conservation Program Coordinator
Sierra Club, Hoosier Chapter
Steve Francis
Co-Chairperson, Sierra Club, Hoosier Chapter
Chairperson, Indiana Blue Green Alliance
Promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy at the federal level and in Indiana makes sense for many economic and environmental reasons, but the threat of climate change makes it imperative that we move much more quickly in these areas. Bowden Quinn will discuss how the Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter is working to get strong climate legislation passed at the federal level, improve our building energy codes in Indiana, and help cities reduce their carbon emissions.
Steve Francis will talk about local efforts to make South Bend a "cool city" and Mayor Steve Luecke's initiative with the formation of the Green Ribbon Commission. His talk will relate how these localactions fit with state and national efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and address the challenge of climate change.
Bowden Quinn is the conservation program coordinator for the Hoosier Chapter of the Sierra Club. He is the Indiana coordinator for the Club’s Cool Cities program and works on two of the Club’s national energy campaigns: Rebuilding America through Better Energy Codes and the Clean Energy Works Campaign. He also works on water quality issues and is a former member of the Indiana Water Pollution Control Board. He has a law degree from the Chicago-Kent College of Law with a certificate in energy and environmental law. He worked for the Grand Calumet Task Force, a grassroots environmental organization in Northwest Indiana, from 1994 to 2002 and has lived in Indianapolis for the past seven years.
Steve Francis is state co-chairperson of the Hoosier Chapter of the Sierra Club, the nation’s largest and oldest environmental organization. Mr. Francis is also co-chairperson of the Indiana Blue Green Alliance, a collaboration between environmental and labor organizations working together to create good jobs in the transition to a sustainable “green” economy. Steve Francis earned a master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame in economics in 1987, and taught college-level economics and business classes for twenty years. He is now a consultant on sustainable energy and economic development projects. Locally, Mr. Francis was appointed by South Bend Mayor Steve Luecke to the Green Ribbon Commission and is chairperson of the green energy committee, which will advise the City on environmentally sustainable policies and practices to reduce the city’s emission of CO2.