February 17, 1995, The LBJ School of Public Affairs, UT-Austin
8:30 a.m.-noon
Bass Lecture Hall
The dynamic border economy and its growing population create enormous
energy demands that have dramatically increased sulfur dioxide and other
emissions, threatening the region's fragile, semi-arid habitat and air
quality. To analyze one of the most vital issues facing citizens,
entrepreneurs, policymakers and researchers today, the U.S. Mexican Policy
Studies Program presents a panel of experts who will discuss how to
preserve the quality of the air shed that spans the U.S.-Mexico border
while providing cost-effective, clean-burning electrical energy that will
limit emissions which currently endanger crops, forests, lakes, and
streams.
Using regional specialists to describe the current and future impacts of
sulfur dioxide emissions on the border region, the seminar will concentrate
on the most recent Mexican and U.S. studies undertaken on emissions
produced by Texas and Mexican sources. The seminar also will highlight
low-cost technologies that have been developed to reduce emissions at
existing plants.
Speakers
William P. Hobby, Professor, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
Mario Aguilar, SEDESOL Representative to the Mexican Embassy, Washington
Frank Bash, Director, McDonald Observatory
Jose Cisneros, Superintendent, Big Bend National Park
Miguel Flores, Chief of Monitoring & Data Analysis Branch, National Park Service
Sally Gutierrez, Executive Assistant, Office of Policy and Regulations
Development, Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission
Gerardo Manuel Mejia Velazquez, Professor, Environmental Quality Center,
Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
Gary Rochelle, Carol and Henry Groppe Professor in Chemical Engineering,
The University of Texas at Austin
Jim Yarbrough, Air Quality Director, Region 6, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency
As state governments in Mexico and Texas plan their population's
infrastructure and address the need for clean-burning electrical energy,
the consensus that binational cooperation fosters will be key to enhancing
air quality in the border region. That cooperation will be more effective
when U.S. and Mexican policymakers have common standards for energy
production.
This seminar is part of the first phase of a Clean Energy Information
Project that will provide regional, federal, and binational policymakers
and citizen groups with critical information about the economic, political
and technological factors involved in energy production on both sides of
the border. Developing a large base of factual information will be
essential to choosing the most cost-effective pollution prevention policies
for the region as a whole. The North American Commission for
Environ mental Cooperation, which was created in the North American Free
Trade Agreement's environmental side accord, is a new forum in which
policy makers will develop harmonization of air quality standards. As part
of this project, the U.S.-Mexican Policy Studies Program will present much
needed in formation, including findings from this seminar, to the new
Commission's Secretariat in Montreal, which is initiating research on
energy efficiency in North America.
All seminars are scheduled for the Perry Bass Lecture Hall at the LBJ
School of Public Affairs. They will all begin at 8:30 a.m. and conclude by
noon.
These seminars are made possible in part by a grant from The William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation of Menlo Park, California.
For more information, call Cynthia Bock-Goodner, U.S.-Mexican Policy
Studies Program, 471-7561 or on internet e-mail at cmbg@mail.utexas.edu.