Federico Peña will give a talk about “Achieving U.S. Energy Independence in our Lifetime” at the University of Colorado Boulder on Tuesday, April 2, at 6:30 p.m. in room 180 of the Benson Earth Sciences Building. The Leeds School of Business and the College of Engineering and Applied Science are co-sponsoring the event, which is free and open to the public.
The event had been postponed because of an illness in Peña's family.
Peña, a former U.S. secretary of energy and secretary of transportation during the Clinton administration, will address recent progress in reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil, as well as outline additional steps that can be taken to achieve energy independence within two decades. He also will discuss economic benefits to the U.S. economy, impacts on traditional and clean energy sources and the growing role of clean energy sources.
“Achieving energy independence is a realistic objective,” said Peña. “Business and engineering students need to anticipate the opportunities available to them by thinking and planning for a changing energy future.”
The jointly hosted event represents CU-Boulder’s expanding interdisciplinary offerings and marks a growing collaboration between the Leeds School and the College of Engineering and Applied Science. In the fall of 2013, the two academic units are launching a construction management track that can be taken by both business and engineering students.
Peña, who was the first Hispanic mayor of Denver from 1983 to 1991, is a senior adviser at Vestar Capital Partners, a global private equity firm based in New York City with offices in Boston and Denver. He currently serves on Toyota’s Diversity Advisory Board among other boards. He recently completed his term as national co-chair of COMPETE, an organization dedicated to fostering competition in the electricity market. He has practiced law and served in the Colorado Legislature.
For more information about the College of Engineering and Applied Science visit http://www.colorado.edu/engineering/. For more information about the Leeds School of Business visit http://leeds.colorado.edu/.