Scott Institute for Energy Innovation

Taking the Lead: Exploring Two Pathways to Pennsylvania’s Energy Future

June 19, 2019

11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. ET

Marquis Conference Room, Scott Hall 5201

Description

Join the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University for a special, lunch-time event on Pennsylvania Energy Horizons featuring:

Denise Brinley, Executive Director of PA Governor Tom Wolf's new Office of Energy;

Katrina Kelly, Strategy Manager at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Energy;

Andrew Place, Commissioner of the PA Public Utility Commission; and

Adam Walters, William Penn Energy Fellow at the Governor’s Office of Energy.

This event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be available.

Abstract

During a 12-month period beginning in 2017 and culminating in 2018, a group of Pennsylvanians representing a wide-ranging set of backgrounds and expertise was convened by Team Pennsylvania Foundation to debate, and ultimately attempt to answer, this question.

Their work culminates in a document titled Pennsylvania Energy Horizons, which was developed using a world-renowned energy scenarios methodology. The project lays out two plausible and challenging alternative futures called “Rivers” and “Roots” which may provide “strategic foresight” into how the decisions made by Pennsylvania’s policy-makers, business executives, community leaders and politicians today can shape our state’s future.

The group undertook this work acknowledging that Pennsylvania is undergoing a profound energy transition. In just a few short years, the Commonwealth has become the second largest natural gas producing state in the nation accounting for approximately 19% of the nation’s natural gas production. This is occurring amidst a global push for deep decarbonization measures.

To date, discussions about how to respond to our rapidly evolving energy system have occurred largely in isolation and at the ends of the ideological spectrum, with little room for compromise. The participants in this project sought a more comprehensive and balanced discourse towards a desirable energy future, and they found it in creating scenarios.

Throughout 2019, there will be Pennsylvania Energy Horizons sessions across the commonwealth with a range of stakeholders – governments, associations, non-profits, businesses and universities – to talk about “Rivers” and “Roots.” The objective is to spark conversation, gain critical input, and perhaps even arrive at a common understanding that will help shape Pennsylvania’s long-term energy future.

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