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2010 Lectures and Workshops at the PA Renewable Energy Festival
| 2010 Keynote Speaker- To be Announced |
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Pennsylvania’s Contribution to Global Warming and How We Can Advocate for a Cleaner Energy Future - Joy Tetlak-Adelstein, Northeastern Pennsylvania Outreach Coordinator, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture)
Joy will present on the current net electricity generation in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania’s contribution to global warming, current and proposed renewable energy legislation in Pennsylvania, electricity savings and ACT 129, and current and proposed legislation regarding natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale |
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Marcellus Shale - Erika Staaf - Penn Environment |
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Using Psychology to Create a Culture of Conservation - Jessica Nolan, PhD, University of Scranton
More info coming soon. |
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How to Overthrow Corporate Rule in 5 Not-so-easy Steps - Mike Ewall Action PA
More info coming soon. |
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Tire Burning in Pennsylvania - Mike Ewall Action PA
More info coming soon. |
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Don't Nuke the Climate: How Nuclear Power is NOT a Solution to Climate Change -
Mike Ewall Action PA More info coming soon. |
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Decision-Making, Decision-Makers, and Sustainable Energy Use - Martin Boksenbaum
Alliance for Sustainable Communities-Lehigh Valley
In his Holistic Management, Allan Savory states that the way decisions are made is critical in our reaching our goals. The folks at Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) & in Transition Town efforts have pointed out, likewise, that who makes the decisions is also critical. I will talk about how the strategies of the above-mentioned organizers can help us to achieve sustainability energy use, discussing in particular Municipal Utility Districts, cooperatives, legislative and political issues, alternative frameworks, and the local economy. |
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Transition Towns: Energy Descent Action Plan - Bill Sharp -Transition Towns State College
Transition Towns is a rapidly growing worldwide movement with a mission to dramatically reduce energy dependence and build local resilience. A means of achieving this objective is the Energy Descent Action Plan, a long-term plan to make our communities far more self-sufficient. |
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Marcellus Shale: The Gas Goldrush Sweeps Over Pennsylvania - Jeff Schmidt - Sierra Club
Vast regions of Pennsylvania are now under assault by the natural gas drilling industry, fundamentally altering the quality of life for tens of thousands of residents. Multinational corporations are buying up landowner's mineral rights, and the public is only starting to learn about the the impacts the drilling will have. Massive drilling rigs, clear-cutting of pristine forests, pollution of streams and rivers, gas well "blowouts", contamination of drinking water supplies, air pollution, massive withdrawals of water for "fracking" and thousands of tractor trailer trips that destroy local road and bridges are some of the impacts that Marcellus Shale gas drilling causes. Learn more about the impacts of gas drilling and proposals to protect our land, water and health. |
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From the Flush to Your Food Source – Sewage Sludge on Your Food & Water Supply - Darree Sicher - United Sludge Free Alliance
Darree Sicher, founder and President of United Sludge-Free Alliance, offers a crash course on the implications of pouring 8 million tons of sewage sludge - everything that goes down the drain of homes, businesses, industries and hospitals - on the farms and communities that grow our food and provide our water. Why is sludge called ‘biosolids fertilizer’? Why does the fear of law suits from the state of PA force communities to accept sludge? Learn about sewage sludge and how to protect the future of your family food source. |
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Electronics Recycling - Steve Schnell - Kutztown University |
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Plant-based eating and the environment - Len Frankel - Lehigh Valley Vegetarians |
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Cathy Frankenberger - Program Organizer, Clean Water Action |
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Brady Russell - Eastern PA Director, Clean Water Action |
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A Survey of Food Preservation Methods - Maureen Diaz Weston Price Foundation
Look at the pros and cons of several "traditional" food preservation methods, looking particularly at preserving nutrients & taste, and ease of preparation. |
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Protecting the Small Family Farm & Consumers Rights; Why it Matters - Maureen Diaz - Weston Price Foundation
While historically people in America have always had the freedom to choose their food, and their farmer, today's regulations are putting a stranglehold on both the small family farm, and the consumers they seek to provide for. This talk seeks to take a look at what is behind these laws and regulations, and what we need to do to protect our free access to the foods of our choice! |
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Eat Your Lawn - Melissa Miles - Organizer, Eastern Pennsylvania Permaculture Guild
The lawn is such a common feature in the America of today that many of us fail to realize that, in the not too distant past, a maintained lawn was a landscape feature available to all but a privileged few. This talk will examine, from an ecological perspective, just what a lawn actually is; explore the history of lawns in America; the surprisingly high energy input/environmental costs of maintaining a manicured lawn and finally, provide listeners with a variety of alternative, easy to care for and edible plantings that can replace the traditional lawn. |
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Edible Forest Gardening - Melissa Miles - Organizer, Eastern Pennsylvania Permaculture Guild
Edible forest gardening is a permaculture technique in which principles of forest ecology are used as the basis for creating resilient, sustainable landscapes (which mimic natural systems) but have the additional benefit of providing gardeners with edible fruit, nuts, vegetables and herbs. Additionally, once established, edible forest gardens (like natural forests), are not maintenance intensive systems. Beds in the forest garden system are known as guilds - a guild planting of fewer than 200 square feet has the potential to produce well over 1,000 pounds of fresh organic fruits and herbs per year while at the same time improving the soil, attracting more wildlife and beneficial insects and creating an overall healthier ecosystem. |
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What is Sustainable Agriculture and Why Should I Care About It? - Marilyn Anthony - PASA SE Regional Director, PASA
It’s open season on the use of “sustainable” in the names and claims of all sorts of businesses. How is a consumer supposed to separate the practitioners from the poseurs? The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) has been actively educating and advocating on behalf of sustainably grown foods and family farms since 1992. Marilyn Anthony, PASA’s SE Regional Director, will share the facts and practices that legitimately make a farm sustainable. She will also discuss the power of eaters and consumers in shaping the future of agriculture in Pennsylvania. |
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Permaculture - Karen Stupski and Patty Ceglia - Heathcote Community |
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Zooming in on the benefits of active healthy soil - Tianna DuPont - PSU Extension
Soil is alive. Tiny insects are ripping and shredding organic material into tiny pieces for fungi and bacteria to attack. Bacteria are oozing sticky substances sticking soil particles into aggregates which keep soil from degrading. The living soil is working for us. This session is an introduction to soil biology answering the questions: Who are the soil organisms? What do they do? Come ready to peak in the microscope and get your hands dirty. |
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SunnyMoney: The Costs & Benefits of Solar Electricity - Dr Vera Cole, MAREA
See how MAREA’s free on-line calculator can help you quickly & easily estimate costs, savings, environmental benefits, REC income and financial payback for residential solar electric systems in Pennsylvania. Understand how to apply 2010 federal tax credit and new PA Sunshine Program rebate. |
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Basic Solar- Question and Answer Session |
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Basic Wind: Wind Power for the Home |
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| Hydrogen Vehicles |
Air Products Hydrogen
Powered Transit Bus
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GM Equinox fuel cell vehicle |
| Gas Vehicles Running on Vegetable Oil |
Volvo diesel converted to run on waste
vegetable oil by Matt Keller
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Vegetable oil powered
pickup by Fossil Free Fuel |
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Living a passive-solar, off-grid life in the Lehigh Valley: The personal experience of a house designer, builder and owner. - Wes & Linda Loder
What is it like to live in an off-grid house? What compromises did we have to make in our lives, if any? Why did we go off-grid? What design decisions did we have to make? How is our home different from the norm? What special appliances did we get, how much electricity do we actually use? The owners will discuss and try to answer all these questions and more as they describe their home. |
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Passive Solar - Dan Brown Eco-Struction
Explore some of the basic concepts of passive solar design. We will look at the different concepts that are use with success. At the same time there have been a lot of poor passive solar designs. The talk will look at what has worked and not worked. You will come away with clearer reasoning about passive solar design. |
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Energy Independence - Dan Brown Eco-Struction, Passive solar design and energy efficiency consultant.
Concern for your environment, a desire to take responsibility for your home energy use, and thoughts about a future energy crisis: These are reasons we seek energy independence. Full of tips on how to conserve regarding heating/cooling and electrical use, this talk keeps cost effectiveness in mind and gives you a starting point for achieving energy independence. |
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"Masonry Heaters: A Traditional Way of Heating with Wood" - Brian Klipfel |
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Solar Hot Water - Dan Brown Eco-Struction
Come and learn how and way solar hot water works. We will go over the system design that works best in PA. Dan will then go over the parts and how they go together and then explain why they make very good economic sense. Yes solar hot water does pay and can provide most of your domestic hot water needs. After you herd the talk you can then sign up for a 3 day workshop put on by MAREA after the festival. |
| G6 |
Timber Frame Construction - Jeff Baum, Baum Construction
Learn the basics of timber frame construction. We will go over construction technique and general designs. The talk will also teach the “green” benefits of timber framing such as: usage of products and the high value of energy efficiency when coupled with Super Insulated Panels (SIP). |
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Indoor Air Quality and YOU - Rick Frescatore - Fresco Green Building Supplies, Inc.
Rick will look at sources of indoor air pollution and their health effects. And then look at ways to improve or remedy air pollution. We will go over ventilation, air distribution & filtration, then look into source removal and modification. Rick has a vast amount of knowledge of many building products, booth the good and the bad, that he will be able to discuss, or answer any questions that you might have. |
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Ground Source Heating and Cooling - Laurie Drebitko and Andrew Drebitko, Jr. NATURALENERGYSOLUTIONSLLC.COM
Ground Source heating and cooling, also called geothermal heating and cooling, is an environmentally friendly and economical way to provide heating, cooling, and domestic hot water for your home. The information session will discuss how the system works, the different types of systems, why the systems are the best option for heating and cooling, how they benefit the homeowner, and how they benefit the environment. The session will compare the costs of running the systems to those of running traditional systems, as well as discuss tax incentives for installing a system. |
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King of Scrounge - Jim Juczak
Jim has been called the "King of Scrounge" and written a book to describe how to get how he learned to do this and reveal some of the easy to do, secrets for getting things like housing, building supplies, food, transportation, entertainment and more during his talk. The arts of bartering, dumpster diving, gleaning free food and how to find and buy a $50 car will be discussed. |
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Mortgage Free - Jim Juczak
Mortgage-Free Housing: There are a number of strategies that almost anyone can apply to provide their housing without going through the banking system. The word 'mortgage' is from the old English and literally means 'death pledge'. Jim Juczak will take the participants through a number of practical ways of eliminating the need for using a mortgage as a means for getting a comfortable home. Buying land, building with alternative materials, recycling homes, setting up the utilities, water and waste disposal systems are just a part of what will be covered in this seminar. For those that already have a mortgage he will go into strategies for saving thousands of dollars on that debt. |
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Old Building Practices Now - Jesse Pellman, Longview Structures LLC,
Re-capture the attainability of sustainability by looking back and re-instating the common sense, the simple, and the conscientious lifestyle & building practices of yesterday to push true & real change for today & tomorrow. We will look into local sourcing, smart framing, consumption, disposal and other building science specifics. |
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Design a House on the Spot - MAREA
We will have a top notch expert panel that with your help will design the ultimate house together from the ground-up. This is all on the spot, no one on the panel will have talked about the design before, in fact the experts are from all around NY and PA with different building backgrounds. This is going to be fun. Who knows maybe you will walk away with new home plans. |
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Passive Solar Earth Shelters - Vertis Bream
Learn about building a 500yr (really lowers the carbon imprint) earth sheltered high mass house using passive solar based upon annual heat/cool storage design rather than the typical daily passive designs (What do you do about cloudy days?). These houses are fire/flood and storm proof and actually somewhat earthquake resistant unless you are directly sitting on a fault line. |
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Green Building Panel
Ask the experts questions about green building and energy efficiency. There are so many choices to make and huge sales pressure in the industry does not make it easy. Come and ask any question or just sit and watch. Which is better radiant heat or geo thermal? Is paying for green certification a good idea? What are the real choices that make a home energy efficient? What choices affect your dollar? Do you need to replace windows? |
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Building Science – letting go of the myths that rob your Home’s Energy – Phil Jones
We have grown up with a set of myths about how a home works. If we could let go of some of those myths, we could live in more comfortable, healthier and less expensive homes. Boost your renewable energy source with some building science. |
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Workshops
If a workshop fee is required: (CLICK HERE) to download a registration form or sign up using our secure Paypal account.
Some workshops are limited to number of participants. |
(BACK TO THE TOP)
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Timber Frame Construction Demonstration |
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Electric Tesla Roadster
Michael Craner is Driving
Honda Insight hybrid converted
