The conference will be held at the Westin Hotel in Pasadena, California from October 6-8, 2010. This year’s theme is Our Energy Our Time: Building a Green Economy & Environment Through Clean Resources & Workforce Readiness. Session topics to include:

• Clean Resources
  • Taking Stock of Alternative Energy Supplies
• Green Environment
  • Corporate Solution to Western Region Energy Needs
  • Value of Low-Income Programs
• Workforce Readiness
  • Finding the Path Toward Green Jobs
  • Creating the Market and Demand for a Trained and Qualified Workforce
  • Entrepreneurial Opportunities
• Green Economy
  • Cost & Impacts of Greening Our Communities

We hope to achieve an increased awareness of energy issues facing us, provide solutions to those issues, create lasting partnerships with participants and use the information to better support the communities we serve.

The Western Region of the American Association of Black in Energy (AABE) is one of six regional areas that support the broader AABE mission through its chapters.  The western chapters are located in Seattle, Portland, Denver, Los Angeles, Northern and Central California.

AABE, a national, non-profit organization with 36 chapters nationwide was organized in 1977.  The primary mission of the AABE organization is to provide a forum for energy professionals to educate themselves on current and upcoming energy issues, to make significant contributions to the formation of domestic and international energy policy, and to inform people of color and others of energy issues that impact their daily lives.  AABE actively participates in national energy policy discussions and annually hosts a national conference.

The American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE) is a national association of energy professionals founded and dedicated to ensure the input of African Americans and other minorities into the discussions and developments of energy policies regulations, R&D technologies, and environmental issues.

The purposes of AABE are the following:

• To serve as a resource for policy discussion of the economic, social and political impact of environmental and energy policies on African Americans and other minorities.
• To ensure involvement of African Americans in governmental energy policymaking by recommending capable sensitive and informed personnel to appropriate officials.
• To encourage both the public and private sectors to be responsive to the problems, goals and aspirations of African Americans in energy-related fields.
• To encourage African American students to pursue careers in energy-related fields and to provide scholarships and other financial aid for such students.

AABE: Energy Knowledge for our Community, our People and our Tomorrow