Introduction by: Carol M. Browner, Principal, The Albright Group LLC; Former Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The recent visibility of high energy prices and global warming effects have captured the public’s attention. This creates an opportunity for Americans to adopt progressive energy policies that benefit families, increase energy independence, and reduce global warming. The Center for American Progress Action Fund advocates such an energy agenda, particularly boosting investments in clean alternative energy technologies, such as wind and solar power, spurring biofuels production, and encouraging auto companies to build hybrids in return for health care costs relief.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will speak about the upcoming Senate debate on S.1419, which would increase energy efficiency, develop cleaner alternative fuels and enhance the electricity grid. It would also launch research, development, and prompt deployment of carbon, capture, and storage technology to reduce global warming pollution from coal fired power plants. Sen. Reid will discuss these and other provisions that would save families money, protect consumers, create jobs, enhance energy security, and slow global warming. The adoption of such measures will reassert American leadership in energy and global warming.
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Monday, June 11, 2007 Program: 11:00am to 12:00pm Admission is free.
Center for American Progress Action Fund 1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor Washington, DC 20005 Map & Directions
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Biographies
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) Growing up in the small town of Searchlight, Nevada, is where Harry Reid learned important values like hard work, the importance of community strength, and western independence. Reid’s upbringing was a modest one. He attended a one-room schoolhouse where the same teacher taught all eight grades. His father was a hardrock miner and his mother took in laundry. Searchlight is where he learned that with determination, anything is possible. Reid has come a long way since his days in Searchlight. He was first elected to the Senate in 1986, and re-elected in 1992, 1998, and 2004. He has served as the chairman or senior Democratic member on several important committees and subcommittees including the Select Committee on Ethics, Committee on Appropriations, Committee on Environmental and Public Works, Select Committee on Aging, and the Committee on Indian Affairs. In 1998, he was chosen by his colleagues to serve as the Assistant Democratic Leader. And after being reelected to his fourth term, he was unanimously elected by his colleagues in the Senate as the Democratic Leader. When Democrats took the majority in the Senate following the 2006 elections, Reid became the Majority Leader. Reid has earned the respect of colleagues from both parties. He’s a consensus builder and a congenial leader whose reasoned, balanced approach to legislation ensures the Senate produces results for Nevada and the nation. He is a tireless worker, and it isn’t unusual for him to be the first Senator of either party to arrive at the Capitol in the morning and the last to go home at night. But despite the demands of his career, Reid’s family and his Nevada roots have always been a top priority. Today, he and his wife Landra are the proud parents of five adult children and 16 grandchildren, and they still call Searchlight home.
Carol M. Browner served as head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, a $7 billion, 18,000-employee agency responsible for protecting the public’s air, water, and the health of their communities. She served as a member of the president’s cabinet for eight years. Browner, an attorney, is widely recognized for her innovative partnerships with the business community and non-governmental organizations, forging common sense, cost-effective solutions to public health and environmental challenges. Accomplishments during her tenure included enacting the strongest-ever national air pollution standards, creating innovative and flexible alternatives to traditional regulatory programs, and leveraging more than $1 billion in public and private funds to clean up brownfields.
The The Center for American Progress Action Fund is the sister advocacy organization of the Center for American Progress. The Action Fund transforms progressive ideas into policy through rapid response communications, legislative action, grassroots organizing and advocacy, and partnerships with other progressive leaders throughout the country and the world. The Action Fund is also the home of the Progress Report.