Speaker Presentations

President's Sustainability Symposium

Transition to Sustainable Energy Systems

University of Idaho President M. Duane Nellis invites all concerned with this nation’s energy future to join decision makers, researchers and industry leaders for the 3rd annual President’s Sustainability Symposium 2009 (PSS’09) held in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on October 22-23. PSS’09 is co-sponsored by the Center for Advanced Energy Studies and will be held in Idaho Falls, home to the U.S. Department of Energy Idaho National Laboratory, and western gateway to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.

The theme of this year’s symposium is Transition to Sustainable Energy Systems with a focus on electricity, including issues with generation, transmission and utilization in a carbon-constrained economy. Expert panelists in technology and policy will discuss strategies that allow for continued growth in electric demand while minimizing the potential climatic impact of this growth. Additionally, in order to help better understand the trade-offs and limitations of technologies and policies to simultaneously provide increased electricity and reduce carbon emissions, there will be a facilitated session of the Princeton Wedge Game. This innovative teaching tool challenges teams composed of symposium participants to choose among available technologies that could be scaled up to reduce carbon emissions by 7 billion tons per year over the next 50 years. The task is made more challenging (and realistic) by the need to balance costs, politics and public perception.

PSS’09 will be held immediately prior to the Western States Energy & Environment Symposium that will be held just one hundred miles away in Jackson Hole, Wyo., on October 25-27, 2009. Please join our experts and others from across the country and around the world in exploring new and existing methods to create a more sustainable future.

Sustainability Resources