The Illinois Environmental Council is proud to announce that the featured speaker at the 2007 Environmental Leadership Dinner will be Fran Pavley, the former California Assemblywoman who was the driving force behind California’s landmark climate change bill signed last year, which requires a statewide cut in global warming emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020.

Pavley, who also was the architect of the landmark California state law to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, is one of the Environmental Defense Center’s 2007 Environmental Heroes and now a candidate for state senate. Currently she is a Senior Climate Advisor for the Natural Resources Defense Council, helping state legislators and others develop climate action solutions. At the dinner, Pavley will give insight into what it took to move such important and far-reaching bills in California—and ideas about how Illinois can follow in this path.

The IEC’s annual dinner will be held at the Hotel Intercontinental in downtown Chicago on Thursday, October 4, 2007. In addition to Pavley’s presentation, the IEC will give its annual Environmental Leadership Awards to several honorees who have championed green causes in Illinois.

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