FEATURED GUEST SPEAKER

Jeff Barrie
   - http://www.kilowattours.org/


Jeff Barrie is a documentary filmaker, grassroots organizer, and activist. His latest accomplishment and documentary, “Kilowatt Ours, A Plan to Re-Energize America” presents conservation, efficiency and renewable power alternatives. Produced on a $20,000 budget, this 65-minute documentary reveals the underreported side effects resulting from America’s voracious appetite for coal-generated electricity. “Kilowatt Ours” follows filmmaker Jeff Barrie on his 18-month journey across the southeast United States, where more than six tons of coal are burned to generate electricity for the average home annually. Barrie takes viewers from our light switches at home to the sources of our energy, examining social and environmental consequences such as global warming, mountain top removal, air pollution, childhood asthma and mercury contamination.

Jeff Barrie graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. in Geography/Environmental Studies. In 2000, Barrie bicycled 4,600 miles from California to Washington DC to advocate wilderness protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He then moved to Nashville and began work as a grassroots community organizer for Alaska Wilderness League and founded the Alaska Coalition of Tennessee. In 2001, he was awarded the Mack S. Prichard Conservation Award from Sierra Club and in 2002 was hired by the Tennessee Chapter of Sierra Club to coordinate a TDOT accountability project. He founded “Citizens for TDOT Reform,” a statewide coalition of community groups. Barrie's "Killowatt Ours" documentary project was luanched in the fall of 2002. In the spring of 2003 Barrie was elected as a board member of Trust for the Future, a local non-profit organization founded by Charles Howell III. Barrie was appointed to TDOT's Long Range Transportation Plan Statewide Steering Committee in 2003 and 2004. In 2005 he created the Southern Energy Conservation Initiative.

Barries professional mission statement is: to advocate a new way of thinking and living that minimizes harm to the natural world while improving our quality of life, the health of our environment and the well-being of our neighbors.

Jeff Barrie's previous productions include:

• Arctic Quest: Our Search for Truth (1999) – A documentary exploring the debate over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as seen through the adventures of five teenagers. Broadcast on public television stations nationwide in 2001 (distributed by NETA).
• “Best Seller” at educational distributor Video Project. “Official Selection” in 2000 East Lansing Film Festival and 2004 Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival. Winner – Hometown USA Video Festival.
• Generation Earth: A Look at Environmental Education (1995) – A special interest documentary examining successful environmental education programs in secondary schools across America.
• “Winner” Hometown USA Video Festiva. Nationwide distribution to the educational markets.

Energy Expo 2006