Energy spotlight: Larry Schweiger
Larry Schweiger likes to focus on what he calls a new energy future.
“I don't believe in the past as a way to operate. I do not believe in looking in the rearview mirror to drive a car,” said Schweiger, 65, of McCandless, who this month became president and CEO of the statewide environmental group PennFuture.
His goals for the nonprofit, whose last leader, Cindy Dunn, left to lead the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, include advocating for energy sources that are less carbon-intensive than fossil fuels.
“We need to move to a new energy future. Pennsylvania can either lead that, or be part of the leadership of that, or it can be a reluctant victim of that,” he said.
Despite his focus on that future, Schweiger is quick to cite examples from the past in arguing for change.
“There were a lot of folks reluctant when the first automobile showed up on city streets and thought that was perhaps not the best thing because it was disturbing the horses,” he said. “Thomas Edison had to develop strategies to make electricity look like gas to get people to accept it. That's why we got bulbs that look like fires. They were wall sconces instead of ceiling lights because they wanted to emulate what was there already.”
A Pittsburgh native, author and nature photographer, Schweiger returns to state-level advocacy after spending 10 years leading the National Wildlife Federation. He previously led the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and helped lead the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
He maintained a home in Western Pennsylvania throughout and will work from PennFuture's Pittsburgh office. He and his wife Clara are among six generations of his family in this area.
“Pittsburgh is a catalyst for innovation,” he said, mentioning local astronomer and inventor John Brashear, who died in 1920, to whom Schweiger has a family connection.
“When you think about some of the innovative things that came out of Pittsburgh, Brashear built a device for Samuel Pierpont Langley, who calculated for the first time the amount of solar energy striking the earth,” Schweiger said. “They shared that with Henry Ford. He actually made a comment that he hoped it wouldn't take long for us to embrace solar.”
Schweiger said he has embraced solar and other renewable and low-carbon tools in his home.
“It's time to help communities get there,” he said. “I really want to work at the community level to get people to embrace this energy future.”
