Event Recap

On Tuesday, November 13, Messiah College's Honors Program hosted "Clean, Green, Abundant: The Challenges of Sustainable Energy," a panel presentation with AEI's Ken Green and Messiah College's David Foster.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Green commented on popular myths that surround energy and the environment. He noted that most environmental indicators in the U.S. have been improving—not declining—in recent decades, and he also debunked the common "peak mentality" by depicting how vast the earth's known energy resources are. Dr. Green named the priorities of reliability, affordability and responsiveness as key factors to consider when thinking about energy.

In response, Dr. David Foster, professor of biology and environmental science at Messiah, spoke about several recent success stories in integrating renewable energy sources on campus and in the local community. Noting the distorting effect of subsidies on prices, Dr. Foster identified hidden costs that often go unaccounted for when considering conventional resources. Following his remarks, the two presenters fielded questions from the audience on topics of technology, scarcity and federal versus state regulation.

For further reading on the issue of energy, check out our book "Abundant Energy: The Fuel of Human Flourishing."