Friday, SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 – 7:30

“LANCE SIMMENS on FRACKING”

Lance Simmens is currently the CA State Director of Gasland Grassroots, an organization designed to promote the current HBO documentary Gasland 2 and to educate Californians on fracking.  He will be discussing the various aspects of hydraulic fracturing or fracking from the perspective of one who watched a fracking frenzy during his eight years as senior advisor to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell.   

 His goal is to help California not repeat the same mistakes that were made in Pennsylvania, specifically addressing the issues of water quality and quantity; air contamination; public health impacts; earthquakes; and climate change. 

Mr. Simmens has been involved in senior levels of public policy making for nearly four decades.  He is an Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at Santa Monica College.  He served as Communications Director for the California High Speed Rail Authority and prior to that headed the Pennsylvania Governor’s Task Forces on Wind and Solar Energy Development.

He was one of the first Climate Change Leaders trained by Al Gore and the Climate Project in 2006 and has delivered over 100 lectures and presentations on climate change around the world.  A frequent contributor to the Huffington Post, he has published over 300 articles.  Mr. Simmens  has also written a novel on the perils of fracking that is scheduled to be published next year.