On February 15, 2012, Amory Lovins, co-founder, chairman, and chief scientist of the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Institute, an independent think-and-do-tank discussed his book Reinventing Fire, which maps business-led pathways for the U.S. to phase out fossil fuels and win the global clean energy race. Building on Rocky Mountain Institute’s 30 years of research and fieldwork, Lovins contends that by 2050 the U.S. economy could exist without oil, coal, nuclear energy – or any new inventions.

An advisor to major firms and governments in over 50 countries for the past four decades, Amory Lovins is the recipient of the Blue Planet, Volvo, Zayed, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell Prizes, MacArthur and Ashoka Fellowships, 11 honorary doctorates, and the Heinz, Lindbergh, Right Livelihood, National Design, and World Technology Awards. In 2009, Time named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people, and Foreign Policy, one of the 100 top global thinkers.