Engineering Energy Policy Change

Public policy and economic decisions profoundly affect all aspects of the energy ecosystem, including its supply, distribution, storage and utilization. These decisions can also influence the pace and focus of innovation of new technologies, including through government-funded research and development programs or regulatory efforts. This course will equip graduate students, who have strong science and engineering backgrounds, with a basic ability to understand and shape the ideation and implementation of sound energy and, related economic, policy. Building on case studies of both aspirational and reactive U.S. energy policy-making, students will design their own policy proposals for new, ambitious and achievable moonshot goals that advance a sustainable and prosperous future. In particular, students will choose a moonshot goal designed to reduce U.S. (and/or global) transportation-related emissions. These proposals may focus on specific mobility technologies (e.g., new zero-GHG liquid fuels), lead to transformation of mobility systems (e.g., integration of wide-scale automation into the transportation sector), or reduce emissions in another way altogether (e.g., moving manufacturing closer to consumption through 3-d printing). Students will also be introduced to gunshot scenarios, moments of energy crisis that require robust response and can create openings for dramatic change to the energy ecosystem.