My Allegheny

This post has been archived. Information below may be out of date and/or relate to a past event.

Law & Policy, in collaboration with Environmental Science & Sustainability, hosts a dinner and lecture with PennFuture president, Jacquelyn Bonomo on Thursday, April 28. All are welcome to join L&P and ESS for the dinner at 6:00 and lecture at 7:00 in the Tillotson Room of the Tippie Alumni Center. Bonomo’s work in environmental advocacy started as a volunteer with the Sierra Club, and concludes with her leading a period of sustained growth at one of Pennsylvania’s most influential environmental organizations, PennFuture. In between, Bonomo has had a front row seat to some of the most important conservation developments of the last four decades, working at the national level and in 24 states and U.S. territories:

• The brokering of the Northwest Forest Plan during the Clinton Administration to save the old-growth forests and wild salmon runs of the Pacific Northwest;
• The earliest emergence of Chesapeake Bay as an imperiled nationally significant estuary and treasure in need of restoration.
• The 1990 reauthorization of the Clean Air Act which curbed sulfur emissions to mitigate acid rain, and marked the beginning of alternative energy fuel standards.

Bonomo’s address will explore Pennsylvania’s environmental challenges and opportunities for equitable environmental transitions. Pennsylvania has exploited its fossil fuel reserves for over 200 years. Its coal, oil and gas fueled prosperity, but pollution from these fuels threatens our protective climate, unraveling ecosystems and harming people all over the planet everyday. What are the other legacies of our state’s fossil fuel economy, and what will it take to leverage a green economy that builds climate resiliency in Pennsylvania and beyond?