American Experience presents a virtual PAST FORWARD conversation examining the history and future of sustainable energy policies in the United States. This conversation is inspired in part by their new streaming film ‘The Sun Queen.’
Panelists will discuss the public enthusiasm for solar energy in the 1950s and why that dwindled for many decades, and how and why renewable energy has become a political/partisan issue. They will explore the true costs of different energy sources, how those are disproportionately felt by lower socioeconomic communities, and how the United States might move forward to a greener energy future.
Panelists:
Daniel A. Barber is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and a Guggenheim Fellow. His most recent book is Modern Architecture and Climate: Design before Air Conditioning (Princeton University Press, 2020), following on A House in the Sun: Modern Architecture and Solar Energy in the Cold War (Oxford University Press, 2016). His research and writing focus on how architecture is changing to meet the challenges of the climate emergency. He lives and works in Sydney.
Stephanie Gidigbi Jenkins champions public policy solutions that promote economic, social, and environmental benefits for communities. As a social entrepreneur, she co-envisioned the Communities First Infrastructure Alliance to advance community-centered plans, racial equity practices, and climate resilience principles serving as Vice President of Strategies. She is a 2022 Open Society Leadership in Government Fellow who previously served as a former political appointee in the Obama administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation and former local government leader. She began her career working on Capitol Hill. She is a cultural bearer, wife, mother, and community advocate, who lives in Washington, D.C.
The conversation will be moderated by Ivan Penn, a Los Angeles-based reporter for The New York Times covering alternative energy. Before coming to The New York Times in 2018 he covered utility and energy issues for nearly eight years at The Tampa Bay Times and then The Los Angeles Times. He also worked at The Miami Herald and The Baltimore Sun, where he was an investigative reporter and covered government, politics and criminal justice. A native of Washington, he grew up in Maryland and graduated from the University of Maryland.
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Stream ‘The Sun Queen’: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/sun-queen/
Learn more about American Experience: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/
Watch other Past Forward conversations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGIBrZBZupY&list=PLmh4YIWteoGhn6gwV1X_UebHijqwPHZ1_
