ATHENS, Ohio -- Bruce Babbitt, former Secretary of the Interior from 1993-2001, is among the national experts who will discuss energy use, national security and international politics at Ohio University's annual peace conference on the Athens campus April 3 and 4.

Babbitt will open the 29th Baker Peace Conference with a keynote address at 8 p.m. on April 3 in Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium.

Throughout the following day, ten of the country's leading energy scientists, historians, scholars, and activists will debate this year's topic: "U.S. Energy Consumption and the Environment." Experts will examine three sides of the issue on April 4. The panels are:

The United States and Global Warming from 9:30 a.m. to noon

• Daniel Bodansky -- Climate Change Coordinator, U.S. Department of State 1999-2001; Woodruff Professor of International Law, University of Georgia
• Randall Lutter -- former Senior Economist, President's Council of Economic Advisors; Resident Scholar American Enterprise Institute
• Michael Oppenheimer -- Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs, Princeton University; director, Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy, Woodrow Wilson School; and co-author of "Dead Heat: The Race Against the Greenhouse Effect" (1990)
• Michael Toman -- Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future; editor of "Climate Change Economics and Policy" (2001) and "The Economics of Sustainability" (2002)

Oil Dependence and National Security from 1 to 3 p.m.

• Kenneth Deffeyes -- professor emeritus of Geology, Princeton University; author of "Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage" (2001)
• Geoffrey Kemp -- director of Regional Strategic Programs, The Nixon Center; former Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs, National Security Council; co-author of "Strategic Geography and the Changing Middle East" (1997) and "Powderkeg in the Middle East: The Struggle of Gulf Security" (1995)
• Michael Klare -- author of "Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict" (2001), Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies, Hampshire College

Fossil Fuels vs. Renewable Energy Resources: The Politics of U.S. Energy Policy from 3:30 to 5:15 p.m.

• Hugh Gorman -- Associate Professor of Environmental History and Policy, Michigan Technological University; author of "Redefining Efficiency: Pollution Concerns, Regulatory Mechanisms and Technological Change in the U.S. Petroleum Industry" (2001)
• John P. Holdren -- Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Professor of Environmental Science and Public Policy, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University; co- author of Energy: A Crisis in Power (1971) and Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment (1977)
• Joseph Romm -- Founder and Executive Director, Center for Energy and Climate Solutions; former Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy; author of "Cool Companies: How the Best Businesses Boost Profits and Productivity by Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions" (1999) and "The Once and Future Superpower: How to Restore America's Economic, Energy and Environmental Security" (1992)

The panels will be held in Baker University Center. All events are free and open to the public.

The Baker Peace Conference was established in 1984 by John C. Baker and Elizabeth, his wife. Baker was Ohio University's president from 1945-1962. Before that, Baker was associate dean of Harvard University and a professor in its School of Business. President Dwight D. Eisenhower named him as his chief representative to the United Nation's Economic and Social Council from 1953-1956. Lifelong peace activists, the Bakers also created peace studies programs at Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA; Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, IN; and Dartmouth College.

The Baker Peace Conference at Ohio University was created to present an annual interdisciplinary examination of threats to peace. Managed by the university's Contemporary History Institute, this year's academic partner is the Environmental Studies Program in the university's George Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs.