Conservative and Concerned About Climate Change? You’re Not Alone

Please join the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media (PCSSM) and Kleinman Center for Energy Policy for this conversation between Bob Inglis and Michael Mann, moderated by Sanya Carley. This discussion will focus on the importance of having good faith conservative voices in the conversation over climate and sustainability.

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Throughout his career in public service, Bob Inglis has emerged as a leading conservative voice advocating for action on climate change. As the Executive Director of republicEn.org, a community of conservatives focused on free-market solutions to environmental challenges, Inglis champions pragmatic and economically sound approaches to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A six-term U.S. Congressman from South Carolina, Inglis experienced a personal and political evolution on climate change, transforming him into a prominent advocate for bipartisan solutions to the climate crisis.

Inglis’s post-Congressional work has earned him numerous accolades, including the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, for his unwavering commitment to fostering climate action within conservative circles. His efforts emphasize the importance of bridging ideological divides and finding common ground to tackle one of the most pressing issues of our time. During this event, Inglis will share insights from his journey and discuss the role of conservative leadership in advancing climate and energy policy, followed by a moderated Q&A session.

Boxed lunches will be available to go following the event!

Bob Inglis is the Executive Director of republicEn.org. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1992, having never run for office before. He represented Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, from 1993-1998, unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings in 1998, and then returned to the practice of commercial real estate law in Greenville, S.C.

In 2004, he was re-elected to Congress and served until losing re-election in the South Carolina Republican primary of 2010.

In 2011, Inglis went full-time into promoting free enterprise action on climate change and launched the Energy and Enterprise Initiative (“E&EI”) at George Mason University in July 2012. In the fall of 2014, E&EI rebranded to become republicEn.org.

For his work on climate change, Inglis was given the 2015 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. He appears in the film and in the Showtime series (episodes 3 and 4), and he’s spoken at TEDxBeaconStreet and TEDxJacksonville.

Inglis served as a Resident Fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics in 2011, a Visiting Energy Fellow at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment in 2012, and Resident Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics in 2014.

Inglis grew up in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, went to Duke University for college, met and married his college sweetheart, graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law and practiced commercial real estate law in Greenville, S.C., before and between his years in Congress. Bob and Mary Anne Inglis have five children (a son and four daughters). They live on a small farm in northern Greenville County, South Carolina.

Dr. Michael Mann is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. His research focuses on climate science and climate change. He was selected by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002, was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geophysical Union in 2012. He received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement 2019 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020. He is a Fellow of the AGU, AMS, GSA, AAAS and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is co-founder of RealClimate.org, author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries, and six books including Dire Predictions, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars, The Madhouse Effect, The Tantrum that Saved the World, The New Climate War and Our Fragile Moment.

Dr. Sanya Carley is the Mark Alan Hughes Faculty Director of the Kleinman Center and Presidential Distinguished Professor of Energy Policy and City Planning at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. She holds secondary appointments at the Wharton School and the School of Social Policy and Practice. She also co-directs the Energy Justice Lab and is a Resources for the Future (RFF) university fellow.

Carley’s research focuses on energy justice and just transitions, energy insecurity, electricity and transportation markets, and public perceptions of energy infrastructure and technologies. With the Energy Justice Lab team, she built and maintains the Utility Disconnection Dashboard. Carley is an author of the Fifth National Climate Assessment report and a member of the Innovation Policy Forum and the Roundtable on Macroeconomics and Climate-related Risks and Opportunities, respectively, for the National Academies.

Prior to her appointment at Penn, Carley was a Paul H. O’Neill Professor at Indiana University, and held administrative positions there as a Chair, Program Director of the top-ranked Master of Public Affairs program, and as Associate Vice Provost of Faculty & Academic Affairs. Before academia, she worked at the World Bank Group as a consultant.

Carley received her Ph.D. in public policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her M.S. in urban and regional planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and bachelor’s degrees in economics and sustainable development from Swarthmore College.

Please note this is an in-person event. We look forward to welcoming guests to the Kleinman Center’s Energy Forum. A recording will be available on the Kleinman Center website the following day.

Boxed lunches will be available to go following the event!

Host or Publisher Kleinman Center for Energy Policy