Energy Policy and Trump: Hope for California and Our Planet?

Tickets: $20.00

The United States is a leader in environmental policy, with California at the forefront as a global hub for clean energy technology and investments. With Trump as President, many environmentalists fear this will change. Trump has vowed to bring back coal jobs, withdraw from the Paris Agreement, and reduce clean energy spending — not to mention calling climate change a “hoax” and selecting climate change deniers to head the EPA and Energy Department.

Californian officials and other international leaders have spoken out and pledged for continued environmental progress, regardless of what happens in Washington. What specific protections can state governments such as California put in place? Are market forces and technology strong enough that current trends towards clean energy will continue despite any potential policy decisions? If the US were to pull out of the Paris Agreement, would other countries continue to hold up their end of the bargain?

Hal Harvey, the CEO of Energy Innovation: Policy and Technology LLC, and Severin Borenstein, E.T. Grether Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, will evaluate the ramifications of potential policy decisions that Trump could make. Are our children doomed to live in a world destroyed by climate change, or is there still hope?