'Power of Choice' is theme of engineering conference on electric power

The Cornell Society of Engineers' annual Engineering Conference will be held at the Statler Hotel on campus April 15--17. The theme of this year's meeting is "The Power of Choice: Technical, Regulatory and Financial Issues Surrounding the Restructuring of the Electric Power Industry."

The program will feature a number of prominent speakers, including Alfred Kahn, former chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board and adviser to President Jimmy Carter and the Robert Julius Thorne Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Cornell, who will speak on "Airlines, Trucking and Telecommunications: Similarities and Differences"; E. Linn Draper, Ph.D. '70, chairman of American Electric Power Co., the nation's second largest publicly held electric utility, who will speak on "Engineering -- The New Electricity Market"; and Jack MacDonough '66, chief executive of Miller Brewing Co., the second largest brewer in the country and a subsidiary of Philip Morris Companies, who will speak on "Brewing in the 21st Century."

Also, Kenneth Lawrence '69, president of PECO Energy Distribution, with 1.5 million electric and 400,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania; and Leonard Hyman, M.A. '70, author of America's Electric Utilities: Past, Present and Future and a research analyst who has written and spoken widely on his field

Speakers from the Cornell engineering faculty will include James S. Thorp '58, Ph.D. '62, the Charles N. Mellowes Professor in Engineering and director of the School of Electrical Engineering, and Robert J. Thomas, professor of electrical engineering and director of the Power Systems Engineering Research Center.

The conference is sponsored by the engineering college alumni association, the Cornell Society of Engineers and the College of Engineering.

Attendance at the conference is by registration, however McDonough's preconference talk April 15 at 4:30 in Olin 155 is free and open to the public. In addition, the Cornell community and the public are invited to attend two sessions April 17 in Phillips 101:

At 9:15, there will be a panel discussion on "Institutional Rearrangement Issues" moderated by Mark Brozina, MAE '80, of Exelon Corp. Speakers will be Susan F. Tierney, Ph.D. '80, of the Economifs Resource Group and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy; Robert W. Shaw Jr. '63 of ARETE Corp.; Teresa Flaim, Ph.D. '77, a vice president of Niagara Mohawk; and Steve Little '76, associate director of Cornell Utilities.

At 11 a.m. a panel discussion on "The Voice of the Consumer" will be moderated by Robert Maroney '72 of RM Capital Holdings. Speakers will be William C. Harding '53, a consultant; Kenneth Estabrook '46, senior partner, Lindaberry, McCormick and Estabrook; and Eugene Zeltmann, president of the New York State Power Authority.

For further information, call 255-9920.