University of Tennessee to
host Second Annual
Southeast Student Renewable
Energy Conference
February 2005
Knoxville, TN
– Today, Students
Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville ( SPEAK) and Southern Alliance for
Clean Energy (SACE) announced their plans to host the Second Annual Southeast
Student Renewable Energy Conference. This year’s conference, February 18-20,
will be held in conjunction with the University of Tennessee’s Spring 2005
Environmental Semester, a semester dedicated to environmental education and
awareness through classes, lectures, and conferences. The February conference
will be one of the lead events to kick off the semester of environmental
learning.
John Nolt, Co-Chair of the University’s Campus Committee on the Environment, an
advisory board to the Chancellor’s office, stated “Universities must take a
leading role in the drive to conserve energy and develop the means to use it
sustainability. This conference, a grassroots effort by students to promote
ethical energy use on campuses across the Southeast, is a sign of hopeful
changes to come.”
This year’s conference is intended to inspire, educate, and empower southeast
students with the tools necessary to bring renewable energy and clean energy
initiatives to their individual campuses. The 2004 conference, held in Chapel
Hill, North Carolina, was an incredible success with over 200 student attendees
from 12 states and over 40 universities. The 2005 conference is on the heels of
SPEAK’s Clean Energy Initiative, a ballot initiative in the Student Government
Association’s March 2004 elections. “The Clean Energy Initiative helps to
provide a solution to the energy issues that are problematic to the health of
both the environment and our society. Initiatives such as this circumvent
aspects of energy production that are detrimental to our future, by creating a
solution through the actions of the students that are our future. This year's
conference will provide students the opportunity to create change through their
campus communities, and the Clean Energy Initiative has done just this," said
Jon Paul Plumlee, SPEAK’s Clean Energy Co-Chair.
Students from around the southeast are encouraged to register early as the
conference planners expect to reach a capping capacity of 500 students. The
southeast has seen a surge in energy related student activism this year with
student referendums passed in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia with
additional activism in Florida, Georgia and Kentucky. “Across North America
campuses are engaging in energy issues. Student bodies, administrations, public
and private institutions alike are recognizing the energy epidemic in this
country and acting on it. Energy is becoming the leading issue of our time,
what better place to showcase real tangible solutions than institutions of
higher learning, one of our culture’s great epicenters of progressive ideals,”
said Nick Algee, Campus Coordinator for SACE.
For more information please visit:
http://energyconference.utk.edu/
