On Monday December 16th, 2013, Clean Energy Action and 303 Vodka will be hosting “Drinks, Music, and the Utility Death Spiral: A Global Warming Solutions Speakeasy,” from 6:30 – 9 pm at 303 Vodka, 2500 47th Street, Boulder, CO 80301.

Power companies have watched warily as solar panels have sprouted across the nation’s rooftops. Now they are fighting hard to slow the spread, in hopes to avoid the utility death spiral. Please join Clean Energy Action for an exciting presentation by Annie Lappé, Solar Policy Director of Vote Solar, on how local utilities can more easily and effectively incorporate distributed generation, moving away from fossil fuels and towards a renewable energy future.

Simple and sophisticated lessons and insights for the future of human energy systems bubble up scientifically and metaphorically from our planet. Join Clean Energy Action for a presentation by biologist and educator, Martin Ogle, sure to make you think and renew your energy for renewable energy! Martin will illuminate the parallels between geophysiology and human metabolism, explore ways that human development can mimic symbiotic evolution and tease out a new brand of entrepreneurship from ancient and modern understandings of the human mind.

What can we do about climate change?
Moderated by Democracy Now!

Please join us to hear Jeremy Epstein, Energy Efficiency and Finance Specialist for the EnergySmart Program, discuss financing energy efficiency and renewable energy home upgrades. Some of the topics that Jeremy will be covering include financial lending failures and successes, the anatomy of public/private parternships in comparison to the EnergySmart Program, and EnergySmart program successes and uptake, today and in the future. Afterwards, there will be a question and answer session for all energy financing questions.

Please join us in hearing Brian Fuentes and Lance Wright, both Certified Passive House Consultants, discuss their knowledge of constructing high performance buildings and the cost and energy savings behind this building method. The Passivhaus concept was introduced to America with the establishment of the Passive House Institute, United States (PHIUS) in 2008. It is a nonprofit organization that provides training, education and research to promote implementation of Passive House Building Energy standard, as well as the design approach and techniques to accomplish that standard.

Sam Weaver, the president, CEO, and co-founder of Cool Energy, Inc. will be discussing the methods that have been used to analyze options and costs for a Boulder municipal utility.

Can Boulder provide a lower carbon and cleaner supply of electricity at costs and reliability that meet or beat the current fossil fuel dominated supply from Xcel?

Come learn about the methods used to model possible options and ask questions about assumptions that have been used. The City of Boulder expects to release its updated modeling results on February 21, 2013.

Alice Madden, holder of the Wirth Chair in Sustainable Development at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs, shared her perspective about the effective advocacy of policy based on climate science. The former state house Majority Leader discussed how to persuade target audiences, creating the next generation of environmental stewards, and relevant topics before the 2013 Colorado legislature.