Carnegie Mellon’s Steinbrenner Institute To Sponsor Talk About Electricity Industry

February 1, 2006, PITTSBURGH — Carnegie Mellon University’s Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research will host “From Edison to Enron” author Richard Munson from 8 to 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 2 at the Engineering Society of Western Pennsylvania (ESWP), 337 Fourth Avenue.

Munson, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Northeast-Midwest Institute, will discuss how his book demonstrates the urgent need for electricity industry reforms and how Americans can use new technologies to become more efficient and less dependant on oil imports. A question and answer session will follow the talk, which is open to ESWP members and Carnegie Mellon researchers.

“The book is an excellent historical snapshot of the nation’s most critical energy supply system, and a wonderful mandate for the many academic researchers already working on new kinds of alternative energy resources to bequeath to the next generation of environmental stewards,” said Deb Lange, executive director of the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research.

Munson’s book, “From Edison to Enron‹The Business of Power and What It Means for the Future of Electricity,” argues that today’s technological and regulatory infrastructure is a relic that has long outlived its usefulness. He points out that two-thirds of the fuel burned to generate electricity is lost and that environmentally unfriendly power generators are the nation’s largest polluters. His book also presents a blueprint for business and policy reforms that will stimulate economic development both here and abroad.

Carnegie Mellon researchers are working on a variety of environment-related projects, including advances in green building design and making alternative fuels like hydrogen more efficient and less expensive to use.

The Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research is a multidisciplinary center created in 2004 by Carnegie Mellon Trustee W. Lowell Steinbrenner and his wife, Jan, to promote the many environmental and energy-related activities at the university.

Contact Information

Chriss Swaney

Carnegie Mellon University

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