Energy and Environment Forums
Energy and Environment Forum Series
The Energy and Environment Forum seminar series is an opportunity to have an interdisciplinary conversation about energy and environmental issues. While many UTK departments and colleges have seminar series that touch on these topics, these seminars tend to take a more disciplinary focus that reflects the theories, methods, and perspectives of those units. The university and the broader community is filled with individuals with different perspectives on energy and environmental issues. The Forum is an opportunity for those different perspectives to come together to form a more complete picture of the energy and environmental issues facing our community, Tennessee, the United States, and the world. Come prepared to learn, ask questions and challenge your viewpoint. As Senator Baker used to say “The other guy might be right.”
Upcoming Forums
Past Forums
The Cost of Clean Energy Transition: Evidence of Coal’s Decline
Author: Eleanor Krause, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Kentucky
Water resource implication of a low-to-no snow future in the American West
Author: Erica Siirila-Woodburn, Research Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lights, Windows, Action! Birds in the built environment and the threats they face
Author: Adam Betuel, Birds Georgia Conservation Director
Charging Ahead: a research agenda on electricity markets, integrated gas-grid systems, and cross-border electricity geopolitics
Dr. Chiara Lo Prete, associate professor of energy economics at Pennsylvania State University, surveyed her past, present, and future research, applying economic, optimization, and statistical models to study the design of electricity markets, the operations of power grids and closely related infrastructures/markets, and the geopolitics of cross-border electricity trade.
Challenges in clean energy transition: What do economists know and not know?
Dr. Ron Chan, associate professor in environmental economics at the University of Manchester, UK, addressed challenges and opportunities in the clean energy transition from an economics perspective. Specifically, the labor market implications of shifting from coal to renewable energy sources, drawing on recent empirical evidence in economics, as well as the role of policy in supporting the decarbonization of the electricity grid.
What’s Missing from the Climate Change Mitigation Debate: A Deep Dive
The full Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report contains information and findings that did not make it into the Summary for Policymakers (nor into GST or UNEP Reports) but carry important implications for the roles of nuclear power and carbon capture and storage. This seminar explores what was “missing” from the mitigation debate and why.
Chasing Shadows: Uncovering Polysilicon Trade Restrictions’ Impact on Solar Industry Growth.
Dr. Ian Lange from the Colorado School of Mines discusses the impact of trade restrictions on Chinese imports on solar photovoltaic installations. His lecture analyzes the response of clean energy markets to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act restrictions on importing Chinese polysilicon.
Socioecological Vulnerability of Southern Appalachian Communities
A panel of experts explores the drivers of social and ecological vulnerability in the Southern Appalachian region and initiatives that can address it.
Policy Change in Oil and Gas Development in Colorado: Patterns and Explanations
Dr. Chris Weible, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs, discusses the flurry of laws passed by the Colorado state legislature regarding hydraulic fracturing from 2007 to 2020. He explores the distributional patterns of these policy changes and explains the emergence of policy adoptions as Colorado wrestled with adapting its governance strategies to the state’s changing energy landscape.
A Conversation on the Future of Nuclear Energy in the United States
A panel of experts in the field of nuclear energy from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the University of Tennessee doesn’t advocate for or against nuclear but educates the audience on new advanced nuclear technologies.
Move Fast and Break (the Right) Things: Hastening the Clean Energy Transition without Compromising Reliability, Affordability, and the Environment
Mike Boots, executive vice president of Breakthrough Energy, chats with CETEP’s Charles Sims about how to move fast on a clean energy transition without breaking the wrong things.
The Sociotechnical Dynamics of Negative Emissions, Carbon Removal, and Solar Geoengineering
Dr. Benjamin Sovacool, a professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University, provides a meta-analytical framework in which social science, engineering, and physical disciplines merge to comprehensively map energy and climate transitions.
Carbon Sovereignty: Coal, Development, and Energy Transition in the Navajo Nation
Andrew Curley, an assistant professor in the School of Geography, Development & Environment at the University of Arizona, covers key arguments that focus on coal and development in the Navajo Nation and the meaning of work and sovereignty for the tribe in the 21st century.
A Conversation about Equity and Viability Concerns in Energy Law and Policy
Dr. Achinthi Vithanage, an originating member of the International Association of Energy Law, discusses legal and policy efforts targeting EVs, climate change, and renewable energy in the United States and highlights opportunities for improving equity and viability considerations.
Are Carbon Markets Reshaping the US Electricity Industry?
Matthew Zaragoza-Watkins, an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University, discusses a study of California’s cap-and-trade program, which included imported electricity, and its impacts on emissions and output from fossil-fired power plants connected to the western electricity grid.
Energy Resilience in the Face of Climate Change
Bandana Kar, an AAAS Science, Technology, and Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy, highlights the Department of Energy’s science and policy activities to address energy efficiency, resilience, and security. Kar discusses the broad scope of these activities and their direct impact on vulnerable communities.
Economics and Epidemiology: Beyond Dollars and Cents
Jude Bayham, an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Colorado State University, highlights several insights from interdisciplinary efforts from infectious disease modelers and economists, discussing their application during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggesting a path forward for research on how human behavior affects epidemiology.
How China’s Rare Earth Monopoly is Reshaping the World
James Kennedy, an international expert on China’s rare earth monopoly and thorium nuclear energy system, discussed how China gained a controlling position over the production of past and future critical material, green technology, and weapon systems.
Vulnerability of U.S. Water Supply to Climate Change
Dr. Travis Warziniack, research economist with the USDA Forest Service, discusses his study on the trends in freshwater use and supply throughout the U.S. and their implications for future shortages due to socioeconomic and climate change.
A Vision for Future Mobility in Tennessee
Kevin Heaslip, director of UT’s Center for Transportation Research (CTR), discusses how CTR’s future research will contribute to advancements that will revolutionize mobility in Tennessee and the world.
A Renewed Commitment to Environmental and Energy Justice
Dr. Tony Reames, deputy director for energy justice at the U.S. Department of Energy, calls for a renewed commitment to environmental and energy justice.