Fishel leads forum on business, environmental balance

Fishel was joined by Jordan Kern from the Institute for the Environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and former South Carolina congressman Bob Inglis, who has launched the Energy and Enterprise Initiative, a nationwide public engagement campaign promoting conservative and free-enterprise solutions to energy and climate challenges.

Jordan D. Kern is research assistant professor at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Institute for the Environment. His research combines power systems engineering, finance and economics, risk management, hydrology and environmental science. He is interested in some of the big changes occurring in the electric power industry, including market deregulation, integration of renewable energy, horizontal hydraulic fracturing (fracking), tougher plant emissions standards, changes in the hydrological cycle, and increased use of distributed resources. He studies how these changes alter power system operations and the financial outlook of electric utilities, and looks at how they ultimately have a cascading effect on water resources and environmental flows below dams.

Bob Inglis represented Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the U.S. Congress from 1993-98 and 2005-10. In 2011, after losing re-election, Inglis went full-time into promoting free enterprise action on climate change and in 2012 launched the Energy and Enterprise Initiative (E&EI) at George Mason University. E&EI is a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt, educational effort that lives to demonstrate the power of accountable free enterprise. By creating a level playing field in which all costs are transparently “in” on all fuels, E&EI believes that the free enterprise system will deliver innovation faster than government regulations could ever imagine. E&EI supports an online community of energy optimists and climate realists at republicEn.org. For his work on climate change, Inglis was given the 2015 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

This program is the fourth in a new series at the Museum ― The Nature of Science: A Town Hall with Greg Fishel ― inspired by Albert Einstein’s view that “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.” The series is designed to provide in-depth discussions with leaders from around the globe, as they explore the major scientific and environmental issues of our time. Comments and questions from the audience are encouraged.

All guests were invited to attend a coffee and dessert reception following the program from 8:30 to 9 p.m. in the Museum’s Natural Treasures Gallery. This program is made possible by the Friends of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and Capitol Broadcasting Company.