Bethlehem, Pa., March 21, 2016—Moravian College, in collaboration with several other Pennsylvania schools and the Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium (PERC), are organizing the PA Power Dialog—one of 30 Power Dialogs being held in state capitals across the nation—which brings together college students, regulators and legislators to discuss state-level implementation of the federal Clean Power Plan.
Pennsylvania’s Power Dialog will be held on Monday, April 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the State Museum in Harrisburg. Twenty-two students taking Environmental Policy, a course co-taught by Dr. John Reynolds, professor of political science, and Dr. Frank Kuserk, professor of biological sciences, will represent Moravian College at the event.
The goal of PA Power Dialog is to provide Pennsylvania college and university students the opportunity to share ideas with each other, as well as with state officials, about opportunities, challenges and responsibilities for taking action on climate change.
“The federal Clean Power Plan mandates that each state determine how it will reach reductions in the levels of greenhouse gas emissions over the coming years. Pennsylvania and other states have important decisions to make about implementing the plan, a central piece of the U.S. strategy for combating climate change. The PA Power Dialog gives college students a voice in that process,” said Frank Kuserk, director of the Environmental Studies & Sciences Program at Moravian College.
The program includes a keynote address by Secretary John Quigley of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP); opening remarks by Robert Altenburg, director of the PennFuture Energy Center on Enterprise and the Environment; three student panel discussions to present student work and viewpoints; a panel of state regulators and legislators to discuss opportunities and challenges for implementing the Clean Power Plan; and small-group roundtable discussions. Joining Quigley and Altenberg will be Rep. Greg Vitali of the 166th district (Delaware and Montgomery counties) and Democratic chair of the environmental resources and energy committee; Gladys Brown, chair of the Public Utility Commission; and Patrick McDonnell, director of policy for DEP.
The Clean Power Plan is a set of new rules established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in August 2015 for electric power plants that are designed to reduce climate-changing carbon emissions. The plan allows each state, including Pennsylvania, flexibility to establish its own implementation plan for meeting the federal standards. When fully implemented in 2030, the Clean Power Plan will cut national carbon pollution from the electric power sector by 32 percent. The DEP is in the process of developing a State Implementation Plan for Pennsylvania.
Approximately 200 students from Moravian College, as well as Allegheny College, Bucknell University, Dickinson College, Messiah College, Penn State University, Shippensburg University, Susquehanna University, Widener University School of Law, Ursinus College, Millersville University and Villanova University will participate. More information about Pennsylvania’s Power Dialog event and many more across the nation, is available online at http://blogs.dickinson.edu/
Power Dialogs are planned for 30 states with the support of the Center for Environmental Policy at Bard College. In addition to Pennsylvania, Power Dialogs are planned for Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. Thousands of college and university students are expected to attend. Andy Revkin of The New York Times calls the events, “an exciting effort to mesh learning and civic engagement around the nation’s efforts to curtail power plant emissions of carbon dioxide, the main human-generated gas contributing to global warming.”
Interviews with Dr. Frank Kuserk can be arranged by contacting him at kuserk@moravian.edu or610-861-1429.