Media Advisory: Carnegie Mellon’s Steinbrenner Institute Will Host Town Hall Meeting With DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty To Discuss State’s Energy Strategy

EVENT: Carnegie Mellon University’s Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research will host a town hall meeting featuring Kathleen McGinty, the secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, to discuss the state’s newly proposed Energy Independence Strategy.

In February, Governor Ed Rendell introduced the Energy Independence Strategy, which, if passed, could make Pennsylvania a leader in cutting consumer energy costs and significantly expand the alternative fuel, clean energy and conservation sectors. The governor’s energy strategy is designed to reduce the state’s reliance on foreign oil and cut energy costs. A portion of the governor’s energy strategy outlines steps to make the state’s power grid more efficient, including use of micro-grids, a small-scale power and distribution network that can serve multiple customers with generators near or on the same site of a customer’s workplace. A Recent study done at the request of the Team Pennsylvania foundation by Carnegie Mellon researchers Jay Apt, Seth Blumsack and Lester Lave analyzed the effects of policy options available to the Commonwealth, several of which are proposed in the energy Independence Strategy.

WHEN: 6:30 p.m., Thursday, May 17, 2007

WHERE: Singleton Room, Roberts Engineering Hall (off Frew Street), Carnegie Mellon University.

About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon is a private research university with a distinctive mix of programs in engineering, computer science, robotics, business, public policy, fine arts and the humanities. More than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovation. A small student-to-faculty ratio provides an opportunity for close interaction between students and professors. While technology is pervasive on its 144-acre campus, Carnegie Mellon is also distinctive among leading research universities for the world-renowned programs in its College of Fine Arts. For more, see www.cmu.edu.