Nov. 18 EarthTalk Features Penn State Sustainability Director Lara Fowler On Decarbonizing The University

 Lara Fowler, chief sustainability officer at Penn State, director of Penn State Sustainability, and teaching professor of law, will give the talk, “Decarbonizing Penn State: How Does Law, Policy, and Financing Fit In?” at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 18, in 112 Walker Building on the University Park campus. 

The talk will also be available via Zoom.

Penn State has been working to lower its greenhouse gas emissions for more than two decades, with a 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions for the entire University recently achieved. 

In this talk, Fowler will sketch how legal and policy changes in the energy world have or could affect Penn State's decarbonization effort. 

This includes the technical standards that led to the transition from coal to natural gas in 2016 or more recent impacts related to the PJM Independent System Operator that runs the regional transmission grid.

“The federal Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also open up opportunities for innovative funding,” Fowler said. “In addition to providing a brief overview of what led to the current greenhouse gas reductions, I will briefly share the work that is happening now with climate action teams that are working on topics that range from reducing Penn State's Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions to offsets. After sharing this overview, there will be time for discussion.”

Fowler is an attorney and mediator who focuses on environmental, energy and natural resource law, with a specific focus on water related issues. 

She has a joint appointment between Penn State Law and the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment, where she is working on questions related to water, the Chesapeake Bay and energy. 

Prior to joining Penn State, she was an attorney at Gordon Thomas Honeywell LLP in Seattle, Washington, where she focused on mediation and dispute resolution of complex natural resource issues, as well as representing clients facing regulatory hurdles in the environmental and energy fields. 

She has worked on issues such as who is entitled to store groundwater in the greater Los Angeles area, flooding issues in the Chehalis Basin, Washington State’s second largest river basin and energy issues in the Pacific Northwest. 

Before pursuing a legal career, she was a senior water resources coordinator with the Oregon Water Resources Department.

The talk is part of the EarthTalks fall 2024 series, “Legal Elements of the Energy Transition,” which is exploring the legal elements of decarbonizing energy systems.

(Reprinted from Penn State News.)

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[Posted: November 13, 2024]  PA Environment Digest