One of the great privilieges of living in DC area can be one of its greatest problems -- for anyone serious about issues and policies and politics, it isn't exactly hard to keep a busy calendar.
Opportunities to learn and engage re energy and environmental issues weren't exactly scarce before, but they've been mounting in the past several years and are skyrocketing nowadays.
This Tuesday -- 12 December -- Amory Lovins will be speaking in Crystal City in an event open to any and all interested parties ... details after the fold ...
Amory Lovins will be speaking this Tuesday evening in Crystal City. Lovins is a pioneering leader in concepts related to energy efficiency, renewable power, and thoughts about how to move the United States and the world toward a better energy future. A small indication of how his work is valued, he is a MacArthur Fellows (the 'genius grants') award winner.
He is the founder and co-CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) which is an energy efficiency consulting company and think tank. (If you are not familiar with it, not only does RMI do great work, but the site has excellent aids for individuals in making choices re energy (lighting, appliances, etc). Check out:
Lovins has had a large number of extremely good and influential (though, sadly not enough to date) works over the years. Ones on my shelves include: Small Is Profitable: The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security, and Winning the Oil Endgame. Writ large, these are among the most marked up books on my shelves.
Re the last (which is available on line), RMI has documented some serious progress, with improvements in the trucking fleet, development of "feebate" programs in several jurisdictions, etc ...
Now, Amory is a fascinating individual, brilliant, with ideas / developed approaches that could change the world for the better.
If you have any interest in thinking about how the world could move toward a more sustainable energy future, than you should be familiar with Amory.
Tuesday, December 12th, Lovins will be speaking at the Energy Conversationlecture series. (NOTE: The overall lecture series might be of interest, with talks by top-notch people on Solar PV, Waste-to-Fuel, etc ...) Lovins will be focusing on Winning the Oil Endgame. This event in Crystal City is open to the public (administrative information) and is free -- unless you want to spend $10 on dinner. (Registration is required. Thus, act Monday ...)
If you can't make the event, Lovins' talk will be put up on the website by January. A Lovins' talk earlier this year, also in Crystal City, is archived here. On the other hand, if you want a busy Tuesday on energy issues, you could always start the day at the Center for Security and International Studies' Coal Gasification meeting or any number of other events.