Our Common Energy Future October 22, 2009

At this breakfast lecture on “Our Common Energy Future,” William K. Reilly will talk about the close connection between securing clean energy sources to fuel our economies and the increasing urgency of addressing one of the most challenging global issues of our day—climate change. Though action in the United States Congress is moving more slowly than many had hoped for with an Obama administration, in fact, a great deal of activity is underway in many U.S. states that is leading to cleaner, more secure energy sources. Successful mitigation of climate change must involve Canada and the United States pursuing complementary priorities. This critical effort must not repeat the experience of the Kyoto Protocol which the United States signed, but failed to ratify and which Canada ratified, but failed to honor.

William Reilly is chairman of the ClimateWorks Foundation, chairman emeritus of the World Wildlife Fund, co-chair of the National Commission on Energy Policy, and chairman of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. He served as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1989 to1993. Reilly was pivotal in crafting and securing passage of a new Clean Air bill, enacted by Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in November 1990, which created an innovative, market-oriented emissions trading system to cut sulfur dioxide pollution in half.

Reilly also played a leading role in asserting environmental priorities in U.S. foreign policy. He headed the U.S. delegation to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992; he was also prominent in advancing forest conservation on an international scale, culminating in a declaration of principles at the Rio Summit. Reilly was the first EPA administrator to take part in the annual bi-national cabinet meetings with Mexico, and played a pivotal role in assuring that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) factored in environmental concerns.

Prior to his tenure at EPA, Reilly served as president of the World Wildlife Fund—U.S. and as a senior member of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, among other positions.

Official Website: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1420&fuseaction=topics.event_summary&event_id=553401