2018 Summit – Town Hall: Do We Have the Energy to Lead?

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Frank Sesno began the next discussion panel, featuring “a Roosevelt, an Eisenhower, and two presidents.”

Ted Roosevelt IV, Susan Eisenhower, Nick Akins, president and CEO of American Electric Power, and Denise Fairchild, president and CEO of Emerald Cities, took their seats on stage. They discussed the politics of climate change and asked: Where does the responsibility lie?

In the current political age, rules and regulations on the energy sector are few and far between, so what incentive is there for energy companies to move towards a greener future?

Nick Akins answered by pointing out that their company shareholders care whether or not they are moving towards renewable energy, and that as a company they have a responsibility to the community.

Ted Roosevelt told us about Barclays latest initiative to lend out green mortgages. Having discovered that people who invest in green houses have better credit, Barclays will be offering mortgages at a lower interest rates to owners of “green” houses, meaning newer houses that have been built from scratch to be energy efficient.

The conversation continued, interweaving ideas of nuclear energy, for which Ted Roosevelt and Susan Eisenhower were proponents, business, politics, and the future of renewable energy.

Do we have the energy to lead? These panelists seemed to think we do. ​

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