IN PERSON EVENT ONLY

The Melbourne Energy Institute invites you to a public lecture on Monday 18 December 2023, by Professor Jesse D. Jenkins of Princeton University, who will present: Can the Inflation Reduction Act Put the United States on the Path to Net-Zero?

The leader of the REPEAT Project will share the project's latest findings and identify progress and remaining gaps on the path to net-zero.

For the first time, the full financial weight of the United States federal government is aligned behind the transition to clean energy. A pair of budget (Inflation Reduction Act) and infrastructure (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) laws enacted by the last Congress will deploy more than half a trillion dollars of public funding over the next decade to put clean energy on sale and shift the USA away from fossil fuels. But will it be enough to put the United States on track for net-zero or to meet the nation's 2030 climate goals?

The REPEAT Project assesses the impact of federal energy and climate policies as they are proposed, debated, and enacted.

SPEAKER:

Professor Jesse D. Jenkins, Assistant Professor and Macro-scale Energy Systems Engineer, Princeton University

Jesse D. Jenkins is an assistant professor and macro-scale energy systems engineer at Princeton University with a joint appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment. He leads the Princeton ZERO Lab (Zero-carbon Energy systems Research and Optimization Laboratory), which focuses on improving and applying optimization-based energy systems models to evaluate and optimize low-carbon energy technologies, guide investment and research in innovative energy technologies, and generate insights to improve energy and climate policy and planning decisions. Dr. Jenkins earned a PhD and SM from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, worked previously as a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, and spent six years as an energy and climate policy analyst prior to embarking on his academic career. Dr. Jenkins recently served on the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine expert committee on Accelerating Decarbonization of the U.S. Energy System, was a principal investigator and lead author of Princeton's landmark Net-Zero America study, and leads the REPEAT Project (repeatproject.org), which provides regular, timely, and independent environmental and economic evaluation of federal energy and climate policies as they’re proposed and enacted. Dr. Jenkins has delivered invited testimony to multiple Congressional committees and his research is frequently featured in major media outlets. He regularly provides technical analysis and policy advice for non-profit organizations, policy makers, investors, and early-stage technology ventures working to accelerate the deployment of clean energy.

MODERATOR:

Professor Michael Brear, Director, Melbourne Energy Institute, University of Melbourne

Michael Brear is a mechanical engineer and the Director of the Melbourne Energy Institute (MEI) at the University of Melbourne. MEI facilitates the University’s research on the technical, economic, environmental and social impacts of energy.

Michael is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, the Combustion Institute, Engineers Australia and the Australian Institute of Energy. He previously established the University’s multi-disciplinary degree, the Master of Energy Systems. Prior to commencing at the University of Melbourne, Michael worked for ICI Australia (now Orica), and then undertook graduate studies at Cambridge University and post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.