Pritzker Fellow Peter Meijer on "Energy & the American Dream"

(Current UChicago Students Only)

Thursday, March 2

12:30-1:45 PM

Modern concerns about climate change have driven political desires to shift away from carbon-based energy sources, while WWI and Nixon-era legislation has hobbled these efforts. From the 1920 Jones Act raising the costs of installing offshore wind turbines to the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act throwing up barriers to interstate transmission of solar energy or delaying geothermal energy development, we continue to arrive at a frustrating stasis thanks to the public choice reality of concentrated benefits and diffuse cost.

The December 2022 announcement of fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore offers one potential breakthrough, although it’s hard to imagine we will see utility-scale Tokamak reactors any time soon. Closer to home, federal incentives to purchase an electric car and electrify home heating have added significant demand to our energy grid, 61% of which is powered by fossil fuels. This session will explore the logic behind utility regulation, federal efforts to decarbonize energy generation, and what policy solutions exist to decrease energy costs to consumers.

Pritzker Fellows seminars are off the record and open to current UChicago students only. Seating in the IOP Living Room is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact Ashley Jorn (ashleyjorn@uchicago.edu).