Video – Why This Is Important

The links below are to a 3-part presentation by David Spence, explaining: why understanding and discussing tradeoffs is crucial to successful energy transition (Part I); how powerful and often unseen centrifugal forces in our politics are pushing us to ignore or downplay those tradeoffs (Part II); and why the history of major regulatory legislation in Congress suggests that national climate legislation may require more support than Democrats can muster alone (Part III).  This is a generic version of a series of talks delivered in the Fall of 2020 at the University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, Columbia University and the University of California at Berkeley. Each part of the presentation was intended to spur discussion of the issues raised, and so these videos may be pedagogically useful in that way.  Many thanks to James Coleman (Energy Law Prof) for hosting these videos on his YouTube channel.

All three videos as a playlist — click here

Part I (tradeoffs and the transition) — click here

Part II (centifugal forces) — click here

Part III (legislative politics) — click here