Miami Student

Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Campus

Kevin Leahy, managing director of climate policy and economics for Duke Energy, addresses the economics of global climate Thursday night in Pearson Hall.

Global climate change need no longer be a cloudy issue for Miami University students, who now have the opportunity to learn all they need to know about the hot topic.

Focus the Nation-an all-day event hosted by Green Oxford, the Western College Program, the National Association for Environmental Professionals and the Institute of Environmental Science-kicked off Thursday evening with the ultimate goal of raising awareness of the planet's changing climate.

Kevin Leahy, the keynote speaker, started the event Thursday night at Pearson Hall addressing the topics of political, scientific and economical issues surrounding climate change. Leahy is managing director of climate policy and economics for Duke Energy.

"Who doesn't get touched by this?" Leahy asked. "You have an issue like (this), and of course everybody wants to get involved. And when everyone gets involved, it gets really complicated because everyone has an opinion."

Leahy said he has been working on carbon emissions since at least 2004. He acknowledged that since Duke is one of the largest users of coal in the nation and emits a large portion of the nation's carbon emissions, they want to be part of the solution to the problem they have created.

According to Leahy, Duke plans on supporting plans for climate change that would be economy-wide and supportive of new technology, amongst other stipulations. Additionally, Leahy said the company would support a cap and trade program, which would provide allowances for carbon emitters. Essentially, they would pay for the right to emit one ton of carbon, and then the fee would be put to further use fighting climate change.

Leahy said Duke has been aware of the global climate change issue for quite some time and does not believe it will go away by itself. He said a great deal of effort must be put into solving the issue in order to preserve modern society.

"The world we have today, that's developed over the past thousand years, was built on a climate that was fairly, somewhat stable," he said. "We've got our cities, our infrastructures, food supplies, our water supplies-everything else built around that climate. So you change that climate and all of a sudden some of that stuff just isn't going to work anymore. Then we're going to be in trouble."

Continued...

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