William Becker. Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.
An international expert on sustainable development, Mr. Becker is a voice for practical solutions for America’s leaders to address the climate crisis and move towards a new, clean-energy economy.
Richard Benedick, PhD. Chief U.S. Negotiator to the Montreal Protocol, 1985-87 State Department. Ambassador Benedick played a key role in hammering out the details of the international treaty that phased out CFCs globally.
Eileen Claussen. Currently the President of Center for
Climate and Energy Solutions,
Ms. Claussen has had a
prolific career in international
environmental policy, serving
in the Environmental Protection
Agency—where she was
responsible for issues such as ozone depletion, energy efficiency, and acid rain—and in the State Department, the National Security Council, and as Chairman of the UN Multilateral Fund.
David Doniger. Now the Policy Director of the Climate Center for Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Mr. Doniger advocated for the phase-out
of CFCs in the 1980s. As an attorney for NRDC, he filed an influential lawsuit to force the EPA to regulate CFCs under the Clean Air Act.
Daniel Dudek, PhD. Chief Economist at the Environmental
Defense Fund with an expertise
in China, Mr. Dudek is an
international expert in cap-
and-trade systems. He cut his
teeth developing the successful
cap-and-trade system used to
regulate sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants—the source of acid rain.
Kevin Fay. Mr. Fay served as the Executive Director of the Alliance for Responsible CFC Policy, a trade association of major CFC producers— including DuPont—from 1980-89.
Jeff Goodell. An author and Contributing Editor for Rolling Stone, Mr. Goodell is the author of Big Coal, which uncovers the hidden costs to environment, health, and community of the coal-fired power plants that supply nearly 50% of our nation’s electricity.
Hunter Lovins. President and Founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions, Ms. Lovins is a nationally recognized expert
in sustainable development who argues that market mechanisms can fuel economic growth while protecting the environment.
Mario Molina, PhD. An Atmospheric Scientist at
U.C. San Diego and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Dr. Molina co-developed the hypothesis that CFCs were destroying the ozone layer, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995.
Bruce Nilles. As National Coal Campaign Director for the Sierra Club, Mr. Nilles works
to phase out coal mining and coal-generated electricity production in the United States.
Michael Oppenheimer, PhD. A Princeton Professor and contributor to the
Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, Dr.
Oppenheimer served a productive
tenure at Environmental Defense
Fund (Chief Scientist, 1981-96),
where he focused on the most
pressing issues of the day—including ozone depletion, acid rain, and climate change.
Shari Roan. A long-time journalist with the LA Times, Ms. Roan is the author of Ozone Crisis, the definitive account of the 15-year struggle to phase out CFC production and protect the ozone layer.
James Rogers. Currently Chairman, President, and
CEO of Duke Energy, a Fortune
500 company, Mr. Rogers has
publicly advocated for a cap
and trade system to regulate
CO2 emissions, without which
there is less incentive to invest
in alternative energy. Duke’s
proposed merger with Progress Energy would create the nation’s largest electric utility, as measured by enterprise value, market capitalization, generation assets, and customers, among other criteria.
F. Sherwood Rowland, PhD. An Atmospheric Scientist at
U.C. Irvine, Dr. Rowland co- developed the hypothesis that
CFCs deplete the ozone layer—
for which he and Dr. Molina
were awarded the 1995 Nobel
Prize in Chemistry. He was a
vocal advocate for phasing out CFCs throughout the 1970s and 80s.
Susan Solomon, PhD. An Atmospheric Scientist at
the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration,
Dr. Solomon led the first
National Ozone Expedition to
Antarctica in 1986, which laid
the groundwork for proving
that CFCs were causing the
ozone hole. Later, she was a key contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change team that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
General Gordon Sullivan (retired). A former Army Chief of Staff during the Clinton Administration, General Sullivan is a member of CNA’s Military Advisory Board and co- author of its groundbreaking reports linking the threat of climate change to national security.
Lee Thomas. As Administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency during the Reagan
Administration, Mr. Thomas
forged the domestic and
international consensus
necessary to negotiate the
Montreal Protocol, which
phased out the production of
CFCs worldwide—and provide one of the most important models for crafting a new climate change treaty today.
Robert Watson, PhD. As a leading atmospheric scientist at NASA (1980-1993), Dr. Watson organized the National Ozone Expeditions that proved CFCs were causing
the ozone hole, and developed
the system of international
scientific assessments that form the basis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which he later chaired.
“Watch this film. It shows we’ve been there before, and come out the other side with a clear victory—for both business and the environment.”