VECAN Conference 2015

VECAN Conference 2015 - A Common Agenda: Transforming Vermont’s Energy Future

Conference Description: Growing numbers of people, businesses, communities, and institutions are investing in solar to save money, stabilize their electricity costs, and help combat climate change. There are a myriad of approaches — and some urgency to invest, as the 30 percent investment tax credit expires after 2016. This workshop will overview of various solar approaches and resources communities can tap to help move great projects forward, as well as some of the challenges that could stop or slow the deployment of solar. It will also highlight a particularly innovative, community-owned approach that several towns are replicating.

Keynote: Vermont’s Renewable Energy Transformation: An Economic Opportunity and Environmental Imperative

Richard Heinberg is a Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building more resilient, sustainable, and equitable communities. Richard is widely regarded as one of the world’s most effective communicators on the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels. He is a frequent presenter on radio, television, and in films, and the author of 12books, including The Party’s Over, The End of Growth, and Snake Oil. Richard has penned scores of essays and articles that have appeared in such journals as Nature, The American Prospect, Public Policy Research, Quarterly Review, The Ecologist, European Business Review, Yes!, and The Sun. Heoffers a wry, pragmatic, unflinching approach based on facts and realism. He will outline the tenuousness of our current way of life and provide a vision for a truly sustainable future. He will also highlight the economic and environmental opportunities provided by Vermont’s transition to a society powered by efficiency, renewables, and 21st-century transportation solutions.