A Hamilton Project and Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability event
Read a recap of the event
The passage of historic climate legislation—both the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act—is accelerating an electricity and broader energy transition. But without upgrading infrastructure and systems and investing in innovation, progress could stall or even stall out. Moving to a carbon-neutral future will require simultaneous gains in innovation and structural capacity.
On Thursday, April 27, 2023, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability convened leaders and experts to examine the future of clean energy innovation and deployment. The forum began with welcoming remarks from Doerr School Dean Arun Majumdar and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. The event will feature a fireside chat between Tom Steyer of Galvanize Climate Solutions and Dean Majumdar, moderated by Wendy Edelberg of The Hamilton Project.
It also included two panel discussions featuring Inês Azevedo (Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability), Jason Furman (Harvard University), Mark Gallogly (Three Cairns Group), Catherine Hausman (University of Michigan), Heather O’Neill (Advanced Energy United), Carla Peterman (PG&E), and Michael Wara (Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability).
The event coincided with the release of a set of economic facts on significant but surmountable barriers to making the clean energy transition as well as a policy proposal that lays out the rationale for substantially increasing federal spending on clean energy R&D and attendant guiding principles for how the money should be deployed.
For updates on the event, viewers followed @HamiltonProj and @stanforddoerr on Twitter and joined the conversation using #CleanEnergyFuture. Viewers submitted questions via email to [email protected].
10:00 a.m. PT | Welcome
Arun Majumdar
Dean, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
10:05 a.m. | Introduction
Timothy F. Geithner
President, Warburg Pincus; Former U.S. Treasury Secretary
10:10 a.m. | Fireside chat
Tom Steyer
Co-Executive Chair, Galvanize Climate Solutions
Arun Majumdar
Dean, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Moderator: Wendy Edelberg
Director, The Hamilton Project, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution
10:55 a.m. | Roundtable discussion: Public policy solutions that support more productive clean energy R&D
Inês Azevedo
Associate Professor of Energy Science Engineering, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Catherine Hausman
Association Professor of Public Policy, University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy
Michael Wara
Interim Director of Policy, Sustainability Accelerator, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Moderator: Jason Furman
Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard University
11:55 a.m. | Roundtable discussion: How can private industry best partner in the clean energy transition?
Heather O’Neill
President and Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Energy United
Carla Peterman
CEO, Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer, PG&E Corporation
Moderator: Mark Gallogly
Co-Founder, Three Cairns Group