Learn about the latest news and featured announcements from the Energy Institute.
Faculty Spotlight: Paige Weber
April 1, 2024
This edition’s faculty spotlight is on Professor Paige Weber. She came to the University of California, Berkeley in 2023 as an Assistant Professor in the Energy and Resources Group. Before coming to Berkeley, Paige was an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Postdoctoral Researcher at UC Santa Barbara. She earned her PhD and two master’s degrees at Yale University and received her bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley. Paige shared why she became a researcher and where she is focusing her work.
Q: What led you to become an energy and environmental economist?
Reducing Wildfire Risk in the Power Sector
April 1, 2024
Electricity infrastructure has ignited some of the most destructive wildfires in recent years. Contact between power lines and vegetation has caused costly and deadly fires in California, Australia, Hawaii, Oregon and Texas. Utilities are deploying a variety of strategies to reduce the likelihood that their infrastructure ignites wildfires in the future. New Energy Institute research, which investigates these investments in detail, could help guide the future of utility wildfire mitigation.
POWER 2024 – In Case You Missed It
April 1, 2024
Our recent 29th annual POWER conference in Berkeley covered a broad range of topics including retail electricity market competition, home electrification, factors driving generation efficiency, the impact of transmission lines, and investments to mitigate wildfire ignition risk in the power sector. Over two hundred researchers, policymakers, and business professionals attended.
Financial Times Selects Energy Institute Research for Responsible Business Education Award
January 20, 2024
This month the Financial Times announced its Responsible Business Education Awards and selected “Paying for Electricity in California: How Residential Rate Design Impacts Equity and Electrification” for an Academic Research Award, designating the research “Highly Commended”. The study was co-authored by Severin Borenstein, Meredith Fowlie, and James Sallee at the Energy Institute at Haas and funded by Next 10, a nonpartisan research nonprofit organization. The FT’s awards celebrate academics who are “focusing their research on solutions that address some of the biggest challenges facing our society and planet”.
Faculty Spotlight: Duncan Callaway
December 8, 2023
Our latest spotlight interview is with Duncan Callaway, who shared how energy research became his field of interest and how he joined the Energy Institute. Duncan is an Associate Professor of Energy and Resources with an affiliate appointment in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and a Faculty Affiliate at the Energy Institute at Haas.
Q: What led you to become an energy researcher? A:
Diversifying the Field of Energy and Environmental Economics Through Undergraduate Mentorships
December 8, 2023
The Energy Institute has a long track record of attracting and nurturing energy and environmental economics (EEE) scholars. With the new EEE Undergraduate Mentoring Program we have expanded these efforts so that underrepresented undergraduates can envision and prepare for a PhD program in economics.
Graduate Student Affiliates on the Job Market
December 8, 2023
Meet our Energy Institute Graduate Student Affiliates, Jesse Buchsbaum and Leila Safavi, and learn about their job market papers.
Faculty Affiliate Spotlight: James Sallee
October 5, 2023
We sat down with James Sallee, Professor in the Agricultural and Resource Economics department at UC Berkeley and Faculty Affiliate at the Energy Institute at Haas, to learn about his path to the Energy Institute.
Q: How did you become interested in energy and environmental economics? A:
Sixty-five Graduate Students Come to Berkeley for 2023 Energy and Environmental Summer Graduate Program
October 5, 2023
For 12 years the Energy Institute has been offering a unique annual training opportunity for doctoral students from around the country who are exploring a research agenda in energy and environmental economics (EEE). The program, better known as “Grad Camp,” seeks to attract a group of young scholars from a variety of backgrounds to the EEE field.
Welcome Graduate Student Affiliates
October 5, 2023
Get to know incoming Graduate Student Affiliates, Thor Larson, Bora Ozaltun, and Karthik Tadepalli who joined the Energy Institute this summer.
Jenya Kahn-Lang Completes PhD and Accepts Stanford Postdoc and RFF Fellowship
June 12, 2023
Energy Institute graduate student Jenya Kahn-Lang completed her PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics in May, and will be taking a year-long postdoc at the Stanford Environmental and Energy Policy Analysis Center before joining Resources for the Future as a fellow in 2024.
Marshall Blundell Completes PhD and Joins Demand Side Analytics
June 12, 2023
Energy Institute graduate student Marshall Blundell completed his PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics in May, and will be joining Demand Side Analytics in September as a senior consultant.
Lucas Davis and Jim Sallee Receive 2023 Cheit Award
April 18, 2023
Energy Institute Faculty Affiliates, Lucas Davis and Jim Sallee have been selected as recipients of the 2023 Cheit Award. At Haas, excellence in teaching is recognized through the annual Earl F. Cheit Award where a panel of students nominate and select faculty recipients.