Driving Force Radio: Transforming Transportation

This week’s guest is Robert E. Yuhnke , director of the Transportation Program at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP).

Southwest Energy Efficiency Program

SWEEP promotes greaterRSS energy efficiency in a six-state region that includes Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming -- a high-growth region that is making great strides in advancing energy efficiency since 2002.

Robert E. Yuhnke

After graduating from Yale Law School in 1972, Yuhnke first served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, where he specialized in bringing the steel industry into compliance with the Clean Air Act. He then served as Assistant Regional Solicitor at the U.S. Department of Interior with responsibility for the implementation of the federal coal mining control program in 15 western states.

For 12 years beginning in 1980, Yuhnke served as regional counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund's Rocky Mountain office. He developed a Clean Air Act citizen's enforcement strategy to protect western wilderness lakes from acid rain caused by sulfur dioxide emissions from the copper industry that led to a 50% reduction in SO2 emitted in the 11 western states.

In Colorado, Yuhnke was appointed to the Metropolitan Air Quality Council by Governor Richard Lamm. He was later appointed by Governor Roy Romer to the Regional Air Quality Council, and to the Governor's 1996 Blue Ribbon Panel on Transportation Finance and Implementation.

Yuhnke served on the national Alternative Fuels Council appointed by the Secretary of Energy in 1989 to develop strategies for the commercialization of bio-fuels. He authored parts of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act in 1991, including the conformity program requiring that metropolitan transportation plans achieve the emission budgets for motor vehicle emissions contained in State air quality plans.

From 1997-2001, Yuhnke served on Transportation Advisory Committee for the Denver Regional Council of Governments, and he represented environmental organizations during the re-write of federal transportation law in 1998 and 2003-05.

Southwest Energy Efficiency Program