Time

1:40pm - 3:00pm

Location

1605 Tilia, Room 1103, West Village

Speaker(s)

Chris Busch, Director of Research, Energy Innovation

Abstract

California surpassed its 2020 goal for statewide greenhouse gas emission reductions in 2016 and policymakers are already working to meet longer-term decarbonization commitments, such as the 40 percent below 1990 emissions limit for 2030 set by Senate Bill 32. Energy Innovation has created the California Energy Policy Simulator (CA EPS) to help identify priority policy initiatives for the state to successfully accelerate the pace of emission reductions. The CA EPS is an open-source, system dynamics model integrating top-down economic drivers and bottom-up engineering detail. The model evaluates the energy, emissions, and socioeconomic impacts of more than 50 individual policy options, taking into account interactive effects. We use the model to compare different policy combinations and to identify – with quantitative specificity – the most promising policy portfolios for putting 2030 success within reach, also evaluating the most significant points of divergence between recommended and current policies. The presentation will emphasize the transportation sector while providing an overview of the economy-wide results.

Biographical Sketch

Chris Busch is Energy Innovation’s Research Director. He leads the firm’s California climate policy and is an expert in energy modeling and carbon pricing policy.  His research at Energy Innovation has shed light on the oversupply of carbon allowances in the Western Climate Initiative carbon market linking California and Quebec.  Prior to Energy Innovation, Chris was Policy Director for the BlueGreen Alliance, where he testified before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Power and Energy Subcommittee.  As Climate Economist for the Union of Concerned Scientists he was appointed to California’s Economic and Technology Advancement Advisory Committee.  He also worked as a Senior Research Associate at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  Chris holds a PhD in environmental economics from the University of California, Berkeley and has published in peer-reviewed journals such as Energy Policy, Land Economics, and the Electricity Journal.   He has been quoted in major publications such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal.