White House asks Moving Ahead keynote speaker Carol Browner to address Congress on scope of oil disaster

Carol Browner, assistant to President Obama for energy and climate change and former director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the national conference, Moving Ahead 2010: Sustainable Transportation Solutions for the 21st Century, which is hosted by Ohio State at the Ohio Union, 1739 N. High St.

Instead, Browner will be heading the administration’s response to the growing oil spill and will be briefing Congress later today on what the White House has been calling “a massive and potentially unprecedented disaster.”

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown is sending a live message via Skype which will be played to conference participants. The Senator explained the schedule change and challenged the experts attending to consider ways to more quickly reduce dependence on oil and help prevent such disasters from occurring again.

See the entire presentation and subsequent discussion by the experts at http://www.movingahead2010.com/live.

Greg Washington, interim dean of the Ohio State University College of Engineering will lead a expert panel at 1:15 p.m. Panelists include:
David Roberts, Grist.com
Terry Fleming, Ohio Petroleum Council
Anne Korin, Set America Free Coalition
Mike McAdams, Advanced Biofuels Association
Giorgio Rizzoni, Center for Automotive Research
Scott Bernstein, Center for Neighborhood Technology
Mark Shanaham, Energy Advisor to Ohio Governor Ted Strickland

WHAT: Closing session of Moving Ahead 2010: Sustainable Transportation Solutions for the 21st Century will feature discussion on how transportation policy could prevent future oil disasters.

WHEN: Brown’s message will be played at 1 p.m. and the panel discussion will begin immediately afterwards.

WHERE: Ohio Union, Archie Griffin Grand Ballroom, 1739 N. High St.