Grid Reliability through Clean Energy

Event Summary

Energy policy is at a critical turning point. We must rapidly transition to clean energy but also, as recent high-profile power failures demonstrate, ensure the reliability of an increasingly vulnerable electricity grid. Continuing to rely on fossil fuels to avoid system outages will only exacerbate reliability challenges by contributing to more extreme climate-related weather events.

Shelley Welton, who officially joins Penn’s faculty in the fall as our Presidential Distinguished Professor of Law and Energy Policy, explains how the perceived tension between clean energy and reliability is a failure of law and governance that results from a siloed approach to regulating the U.S. electric grid. She asserts that the path forward must include energy law reform that addresses the dual objectives of lowering carbon emissions and ensuring grid reliability.