Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center

Many energy transition models assume aggressive clean energy deployment rates. However, even in states with the political will to implement changes, existing regulatory constructs are hindering our progress. Reforms to energy market rules, transmission planning processes, and permitting & siting can take years (if not decades) to implement, and in some cases, require wholesale reinvention of the utility business model. We will discuss some of the major short-to-medium term barriers on the road to the clean energy transition and how to start solving them in a politically divided America.

Abraham Silverman is the Director of the Non-Technical Barriers to the Clean Energy Transition initiative at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. The Non-Technical Barriers initiative is designed to identify major legal and regulatory bottlenecks to the clean energy transition and then provide pragmatic solutions to address those challenges.

Before joining the Center, Abe served at the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities as the General Counsel and Executive Policy Counsel. Abe’s portfolio included developing offshore wind, solar, electric vehicle, energy storage, and interconnection reform programs, along with quantifying and managing ratepayer impacts of the clean energy transition. Previously, Abe spent more than a decade at NRG Energy, Inc., as a lawyer and head of policy.