The Biden administration is presiding over a fundamental shift in climate policy strategy, having embraced a series of incentive-based industrial policy measures as the primary means by which to accelerate the clean energy transition. The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are mobilizing massive public and private capital flows, but the mechanisms by which these laws are transforming the investment landscape involve distinct legal authorities and institutional capacities that are distributed across state and federal agencies. The resulting system of governance is fragmented and under-theorized in the research community.
Explore the mechanisms of policy intervention as we discuss an evidence-based strategy for implementing green industrial policy.
Danny Cullenward
Senior Fellow
Kleinman Center for Energy Policy
Danny Cullenward is a climate economist and lawyer focused on the design and implementation of scientifically grounded climate policy. His book, Making Climate Policy Work (with David G. Victor), shows how political forces make green industrial policy more effective than carbon pricing.
Cullenward is a Senior Fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, a Research Fellow with the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University, and the Vice Chair of California’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee. He previously held research and teaching appointments at UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and Stanford University.
His academic research has been published in Science and Nature as well as top field journals in ecology, energy economics, and climate policy. He has been involved in dozens of legal and public policy processes with state, federal, international, and private sector regulators, and has given invited expert testimony at nine legislative hearings in California. His research, public policy analysis, and commentary is often featured in leading media outlets, including nationally televised segments on HBO and CBS News.
Cullenward holds a JD from Stanford Law School and a PhD in Environment and Resources from Stanford University, where he also earned an MS in Management Science and Engineering and a BS with interdisciplinary honors in Earth Systems.
Angela Pachon (moderator)
Research Director
Kleinman Center for Energy Policy
Angela Pachon oversees the research agenda, manages the research grants and the visitor scholar programs, and develops scholarship and research collaborations across campus and beyond. She is also the author and editor of various publications of the Center and has studied issues related to electricity markets in the US, gas policies in Pennsylvania and climate policies in Latin America. Prior to the Kleinman Center, Pachon worked as a policy advisor at the Ontario Energy Board developing incentive regulation for electricity and gas utilities and assessing rate impacts and affordability measures resulting from the implementation of feed-in tariffs. She also worked for NERA Economic Consulting in London, England leading electricity sector reform projects in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Pachon earned her master of science in local economic development from the London School of Economics, England and her B.S. degree from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, in Bogota, Colombia.