California, here we come! And we need your questions!

On Point is headed west!

No, no. Not for good. Only for one show. But it’s a very special show!  The NPR station in Thousand Oaks, California – KCLU – is celebrating their 15th anniversary. We’re lucky to have been on their airwaves for nearly seven years, and they invited us out west to host a live show. How could we refuse? (A chance to meet some of our loyal listeners? You bet. Sunny Southern California just as Boston sinks slowly into winter? No question!)

Our topic out in Thousand Oaks will be California, energy, and climate change. The show will be recorded in front of a live audience on Saturday, November 7, from 8-9 pm PT. Those of you who can’t make it will hear the broadcast (and podcast) on Monday, November 9, at 11am ET. If you're in the area and want to join us you can find details and tickets here.

But no matter where you may be, here's where we can use your help. Since the show will be pre-recorded, we won’t be able to take live listener calls during the hour. That means we need your questions!

The Golden State has long been a leader on energy. An innovator. But with overcrowded prisons, partisan standoffs, high unemployment, soaring foreclosures, public schools in dire need, and you name what else, does the state's new energy economy really have a chance of taking off? Can "greentech" save California, and can California help save the rest of us?

We have some great guests lined up. We’ll talk to Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board. She’s in charge of implementing California’s bold new climate legislation, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. We’ll also talk to Bill Gross. He’s CEO of Idealab, a company famous for fostering and helping to fund cutting-edge new companies. What are they banking on now? You guessed it: Greentech. Also on the panel is Gary Polakovic, former environmental reporter at the Los Angeles Times. He shared a Pulitzer Prize and now runs his own consulting group, Make Over Earth, Inc.

Please post your thoughts, comments, concerns, and questions here. We want to hear from you. On climate change. On California. On whether California can help lead the rest of the nation into a new energy era. Is California cutting edge? Or is the state headed out on a limb? We’ll put selected questions to our panel.