Ep. 245 Planet Positive Series with William Becker

William "Bill" Becker is the Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), a nonpartisan foundation-funded initiative that has worked for the past 13 years with many U.S. and international thought leaders to develop ideas for presidential leadership on climate change and America’s transition to a clean energy economy. Before founding PCAP, Bill served for 15 years as a senior official at the Department of Energy, specializing in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and zero-carbon energy technologies.

Working with former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Becker directed an initiative in 2014 that convened more than 100 experts in five energy sectors to prepare policy ideas for President Barack Obama. The report -- Powering Forward: Presidential and Executive Agency Actions to Drive Clean Energy in America -- contains analyses and policy proposals that remain relevant today.

During his diverse career, Bill has been Administrative Assistant to Wisconsin’s Attorney General, Counselor to the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the publisher of his own weekly newspaper, a correspondent for the Associated Press, and membership on Mikhail Gorbachev’s International Climate Change Task Force.

He is a former journalist who began at age 19 as a decorated combat correspondent for the U.S. Army in  the Vietnam War. He is a frequent blogger and a regular contributor to the on-line magazine Wall Street International.

Books:

·     The Creeks Will Rise: People Co-Existing with Floods, scheduled for publication in Spring 2021, Fulcrum Press

·     Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People, co-editor and contributor, February 2020, The New Press

·     The 100-Day Action Plan to Save the Planet, St. Martin’s Griffin, New York

·     The Indefensible Society, Lorian Press

·     The Making of a Solar Village, U.S. Department of Energy

·     Rebuilding for the Future, U.S. Department of Energy

·     Creating a Sustainable and Desirable Future: Insights from 45 global thought leaders, (contributor) World Scientific 2014.