PCAP Advisory Committee

The Presidential Climate Action Project is a two-year, $2 million initiative administered by the Wirth Chair, School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver. The project is guided by a prestigious National Advisory Committee chaired by Ray Anderson, former co-chair of the President's Council on Sustainable Development and founder and chairman of the board of Interface Inc. in Atlanta, Ga.

The Committee's ground rules do not require consensus; rather, the Committee has urged the project team to push the envelope of public policy as far as the urgency of the climate and energy issues requires. In other words, while the project's advisors do not all agree with all of the plan's proposals, they agree on the need for boldness.

Members of the National Advisory Committee are:

Ray Anderson, PCAP Chair
Founder and Chairman of the Board
Interface Inc.


D. James Baker, Ph.D.
Director, Global Carbon Measurement Program
William J. Clinton Foundation
Former Administrator
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Scott Bernstein
President
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Brian Castelli
Executive Vice President
Alliance to Save Energy
April Bucksbaum
Vice President
The Baum Foundation
Boyd Gibbons
Immediate Past President
Johnson Foundation
Dianne Dillon-Ridgley
Chair
Plains Justice
Sheila Slocum Hollis
Partner
Duane Morris LLP
Gary Hart
U.S. Senator (Ret.)
Wirth Chair, University of Colorado Denver
William C. Kunkler III
Executive Vice President
CC Industries, Inc.
Van Jones
Board President & Co-Founder
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Michael Northrop
Program Director, Sustainable Development
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Hunter Lovins
President
Natural Capitalism Solutions, Inc.
Theodore Roosevelt IV
Chair
Pew Center on Global Climate Change
David Orr
Paul Sears Distinguished Professor
Environmental Studies and Politics
Oberlin College
James Gustave "Gus" Speth
Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Yale University
John L. Petersen
President
The Arlington Institute
Admiral Richard H. Truly (U.S. Navy Ret.)
Former Administrator, NASA
Former Director, NREL
Larry Schweiger
President and CEO
National Wildlife Federation
Jeremy Symons
Director
Global Warming Campaign - National Wildlife Federation
Terry Tamminen
Cullman Senior Fellow and Climate Policy Director
New America Foundation
Heidi VanGenderen
Senior Policy Advisor
Colorado Governor's Office

A number of additional national experts have contributed ideas for the PCAP as participants in the
National Leadership Summits for a Sustainable America.

The PCAP Advisory Committee provides invaluable guidance in selecting and framing the action items in the presidential plan. However, final decisions about the PCAP's content are made by the project's Executive Director. The Advisory Committee has chosen not to seek consensus on the PCAP's recommendations, in part because consensus is unlikely on so many action items and in part because as it aligns with the lowest common denominator among policy options, consensus can be the enemy of boldness. As a result, not all Advisory Committee members agree with all PCAP recommendations. The Committee is unanimous, however, in supporting the need for courageous, comprehensive and timely climate action by the next President of the United States.


The Presidential Climate Action Project is administered by a team based at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs in Denver. That team consists of:

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