CU students, experts jam on energy

Forum participants discuss state's energy future on campus Monday

By Lance Vaillancourt (Contact)

Originally published 11:47 p.m., November 17, 2008
Updated 11:47 p.m., November 17, 2008

Photo by Zak Wood

CU senior and CoPIRG member Josh Steinbruegge takes notes while listening to, from left in background, Amy Hollander, Claire Levy, Moe Tabrizi and Dr. Randolph Treece Monday during an energy-efficiency forum on campus.

A convocation of experts and interested students expended energy Monday coming up with schemes designed to save it.

University of Colorado students -- including student government representatives and the members of several student environmental groups -- gathered in the Environmental Design Building on campus for the first in a series of five statewide events discussing strategies for energy efficiency in the state of Colorado.

"The solution to climate change isn't on the supply side -- it's on the demand side," said Eric Freese, President of CU's Student Environmental Action Coalition. "It's much cheaper to work in energy efficiency than it is to build new facilities that generate new energy. Essentially, it's easier to reduce demand than increase supply."

The forum gathered four experts to discuss which practical applications of sustainable-energy use should be incorporated by Coloradans.

"The aim is to create a dialogue around energy efficiency as a solution to our global-warming problem," said Kristen Pieper, campus organizer for the Colorado Public Interest Research Group, the statewide non-profit student group that hosted the event. "The speakers will be focusing on where we're going, what we're already doing, and what we should be doing to start an energy-efficient future in Colorado."

The four experts present included State Representative Claire Levy, solar energy leader Dr. Randolph E. Treece, director of Longs Peak Energy Conservation Amy Hollander and CU Energy Conservation Officer Moe Tabrizi.

In a town-hall setting, the speakers coupled a discussion of the recent history of energy use in the state of Colorado with proposals of practical strategies to reduce it by combining outreach and awareness with legislation and free-market actions.

"It's not nearly as 'red-blue' as you might think," said Treece. "If you're willing to reach out to people and not condescend to them, they will really respond to you."

For the students who attended, the forum offered an opportunity to further their personal environmental missions, not only by gaining an understanding of how energy efficiency can affect Colorado, but also by networking with experts in the field.

"When else would I have the opportunity to meet some of these people on a face-to-face level?" asked Josh Steinbruegge, CU senior and CoPIRG intern. "If you are trying to get something done in regard to energy policy, these are good people to know."

According to Levy, however, it is the efforts of environmentally-conscious students that count. She stated she sees them as instrumental influences in the creation of working energy-efficiency policies.

"You [students] drive a lot of this," Levy said. "You set an example, it works, and we take it and try to make it statewide."