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Dates: February 16-March 23, 2010

Fee: $250 registration

How well prepared are we to understand the substantial challenges facing this country and the world around energy resources? This interactive online seminar will provide the opportunity for participants to interact with leading thinkers in the area of energy and policy and to explore the most current issues that influence how we look at dwindling resources, renewable energy and policies.

Dan Kammen is going to moderate a panel discussion with energy leaders on COP15, including Amory Lovins, John Picard, Bill Spence and Nancy Sutley. The discussion precedes an advanced screening of the fourth season of the PBS series: e2, the economies of being environmentally conscious.

Dan Kammen emphasizes the importance of an ambitious climate bill for the renewable energy sector. Although there has not been as much movement in the energy business since the Arab oil embargo and several companies in California have received big grants or loan guarantees from the stimulus package, the ultimate success of the renewable energy industry will depend in the long run on a coherent cap-and-trade system. Until then Dan Kammen can only give the grade incomplete.

The enrollment in Dan Kammen's introductory energy class (Energy and Society: ER 100/200, PP184/284) exploded as USA Today reports. The number of students has risen from around 40 in the end of the the 1990s to 270 in 2009.

This follows a national trend mirroring on the one hand the great interest of students in the field of sustainability and renewable energies and on the other hand high expectations of future employers.

Along with Energy Secretary Steve Chu and MIT's Ernie Moniz, Dan Kammen agrees that some sort of nuclear power will be necessary in the future to move away from coal. Dan Kammen was quoted in the context of a new generation of smaller, modeluar nuclear power plants.