In Before the Lights Go Out, science blogger and NYTimes columnist Maggie Koerth-Baker presents a comprehensive analysis of the ways in which America produces, distributes, and consumes energy. She explains how our current systems developed, points out their strengths and weaknesses, and offers candid assessments of the time, the difficulty, and the expense involved in making radical changes to the energy systems that have shaped our lives for a hundred years. Drawing on more than two years of research and interviews with experts on everything from our electrical grid and electric cars to fracking and passive buildings, Koerth-Baker explains what we can do, what we can’t do, and why “the solution” is really a lot of solutions working together.

Ellen Anderson is an advisor on energy issues to Governor Mark Dayton. She is a former member of the Minnesota Senate and a former nominated chair of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will provide comments on Minnesota’s current energy capacities, challenges and direction in light of the world’s declining reserve of hydrocarbon-based energy sources.

The event is free and open to the public.

Women’s Environmental Network’s members may register online for a pre-event, 6 pm dinner at Khyber Pass, near the corner of Snelling and Grand Avenues in St. Paul for $12/member.   The dinner is limited to 30 members and tickets will be sold on a first come/first serve basis on WEN’s website at www.fwef.org.