CalChamber Board member Jennifer Haley (right), president of Kern Energy, moderates a climate change policy discussion at the CalChamber Board of Directors meeting on December 9 with experts Lynn Orr (center) former undersecretary for science and energy and Stanford University professor emeritus in energy science and engineering, and Michael Wara, senior research scholar, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Subjects covered included the complexities of the interacting systems that power the economy; the importance of energy transmission systems; maintaining diverse energy supply sources, including fossil fuels, during the transition to an economy relying more on electricity; the need for a speedier permit process to get energy infrastructure —including renewable energy sources — online; keeping energy affordable; how to decarbonize the economy while keeping it healthy and growing; and avoiding energy policies that discourage innovation because it is unclear today what technology could prove crucial tomorrow.
