 Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to all of our viewers from around the world. Arun Majumdar and I would like to welcome you back to the Stanford Global Energy Dialogues. To kick us off, warm up the audience so to speak, we're going to do one of our quick polls. So how many Stanford Global Energy Dialogues have you participated in? And if you have, you have about 10 seconds or so to do this. Okay, we'll take a look. Oh, fantastic. Okay. So, so like last week or the last session, it's equally mixed amongst all of you, about 25% in each of those categories. So for those of you who joined us the entire time, welcome back. And for those of you who are new welcome, and we hope you join us in future global energy dialogues. So we are living in extraordinary times, a global health crisis, an economic crisis, and a global movement for racial justice. All three interweaving issues that are the defining fabric of 2020. To understand this unique moment in history, especially through the lens of energy and a filter of social justice, we have the pleasure of welcoming a very special guest, Colette Honorable, who is a partner at Reed Smith Energy and Natural Resources Group. A native of Arkansas, Colette is a graduate of the University of Memphis and received a JD from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law. She served as the Chief of Staff to the Arkansas Attorney General, and as a member of the Governor's Cabinet as Executive Director of the Arkansas Workforce Investment Board. Between 2007 and 2015, she served on the Arkansas Public Service Commission, which she chaired from 2011 to 2015. Colette is also past president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, where she focused on pipeline safety, reliability, resilience, fuel diversity, and workforce development. In 2014, Colette was nominated by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate to serve as a commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC. At FERC focused on reliability oversight of the bulk power system, cyber and physical security, oversight of wholesale markets, transmission planning and cost allocation for regional transmission organizations, gas-electric coordination, renewables integration, energy storage integration, evaluation, and enforcement making and infrastructure development. On the international front, Colette has provided technical expertise and support for energy regulators and policymakers in Africa, Australia, in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the Baltic region, Slovenia, and Spain, Azerbaijan, and Turkey, and the Caribbean. These involved a large palette of issues from transmission lines to energy storage that are involved in the energy transition. Colette is also a member of the advisory board of the Energy Futures Initiative that is led by Secretary Ernie Moniz and is a senior fellow with the Bipartisan Policy Center and an ambassador of the Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Initiative. She also serves on the board of directors of EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute, and some utilities. It is clear that Colette brings a unique perspective on energy policies related to local, national, and international issues. Her life story is also an inspiration to many around the world. Arun and I will explore the topics related to the energy transition with her and to capture this unique moment in history and also explore how to think about racial injustice and what we need to do in the future. We also have two Stanford students joining us, Carolyn Zhou and Juliana Lu Yang, and they will ask some questions during the Q&A session. So please now let me hand this over to Arun to start the dialogue. Thank you, Sally. So we go now to quiz number two with the world under lockdown. What is the expected reduction in global primary energy demand in 2020? Is it 3%, 6%, 11%, or 20%? You got 10 seconds. Let's see the results. 40% said 6%, 37%, 11%. So the correct answer, and you all are very well read, the correct answer is 6%, and this is according to the recent report by the International Energy Agency. And this 6% is the global combined energy demand of France, Germany, Italy, and UK put together. It is seven times worse than the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. Oil demand will be down 9%, coal down 8%, gas down 5%, nuclear down 2%, and renewables up 1%. So that's what is expected of 2020. So let me now turn to Colette. Colette, it's so good to have you here with us. Let me start by saying that you are unique in having a local perspective as a utility commissioner, a national perspective as a fur commissioner, and also global perspective as an advisor to so many nations around the world. So if you take stock of, given your expertise and you take stock of what's going on around the world, we are entering the third decade of the 21st century with an energy infrastructure that was largely developed in the 20th century. We also know there's a massive energy transition going on around the world. So from your perspective, what strikes you as the most important driver for this energy transition? Is it economics and affordability? Is it access to energy? Is it national security? Or is it environment and climate change? And are these drivers opposing each other or the reinforcing each other? What is your perspective? Thank you, Arun. And let me say greetings to you, to Sally, to Caroline, to Juliana and our friends from around the world who are gathered today for an exciting discussion about energy. I'll answer this question in two ways. And the first is as a former regulator. Clearly, all of these drivers have had an incredible impact in the current energy transition. And that's a great thing. We absolutely need to focus more about the access to energy for so many places around the world that are still developing. That's critical. We can't leave anyone behind because in as much as there are places around the world that lack access to energy, their economies aren't able to develop as robustly as they should. Schools and hospitals and homes can't be supported as they should. And so we can't lose sight of that. But yes, affordability is key for many places around the world, everywhere around the world. That has been a primary role of the regulator as well as ensuring reliability and resilience. So yes, it has to be affordable, but consumers need to be able to count on energy when they need it the most. And especially in dark sky or black sky events that may occur or interruptions to the grid of all types. And but finally, and most importantly, I think the greatest driver and I'm so excited about this is this focus on the environment and climate change. It's real. We are major contributors to it. And I'm really excited about the many ways in which we are working together around the world to impact it and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. So just to follow up on that, I mean, this is a complex issue because there's so many different, you know, the strings have been pulled on this. We need to balance all of this issue. So can you give us an example with decisions that you made as in any of these levels that you were at were were complex with with difficult to make because they were opposing each other, but you somehow figure out how to make these drivers sort of reinforce each other. Can you give us a few examples of that. Thank you. I'll give you one that comes to mind from my time as a state regulator in Arkansas. We were working diligently on a number of fronts we were focused on that metering on energy efficiency. One key area where we thought that we could move consumers ahead and utilities that serve them to move them ahead as well as to support the integration of smart meters. And as you all know smart meters are meters that not only determine consumption, but they are able to gather and send back to the utility service provider important information about usage time of use, etc. When low growth is the highest so that it can be used in a great degree to planning to managing especially on hot summer days or cold winter days. But smart so there's a two way communication there. We saw the value of allowing this technology to be used however it was quite expensive. But goodness, the Department of Energy in the US at that time, allowed a number of grants to be used to pair with utilities that put forward a plan to focus diligently on smart integration of smart meters. So it really incorporated another element that you mentioned Arun and that is security in in harnessing this important technology we had to make sure that it was secure, and that not only that but that we attended to privacy concerns and issues regarding data is that who owns the data consumers do, and also how utilities would manage it and we also focus very heavily on the plan for keeping this information secure from intrusion from cyber threats. Another element of that was consumer education and engagement we know that as a people when we know better we do better and so we were focused heavily on that and clearly the integration of smart meters allowed us to gain greater information about how consumers use energy in our jurisdiction and allowed us to tailor programs and offerings to help focus more greatly on energy efficiency and to drive the usage of energy toward certain times of day when energy would cost less. Thanks Colette, let me now hand this over to Sally. Okay, well, thank you. So let's pull up the next poll. And this is a follow on really to the first question. And that is, with the world under lockdown. What is the expected reduction in energy related global carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 about 10 seconds to answer this. Okay, let's see what you think. Okay. Wow, we have a very educated audience today. Good job. 8% and just to put a little more detail on this of the 2.6 gigatons or billion tons of reduction reduced coal use would contribute 1.1 gigaton, followed by oil at one gigaton and gas at 0.4 gigatons. And the United States would undergo the largest reduction in CO2 emissions of 0.6 gigatons. So that's a second interesting fact of the day. Okay, so as I'm moving on to a new question. So to address the urgency of climate change. Almost everyone agrees that we need to dramatically accelerate the pace of reducing emissions from the electricity sector, but beyond this general agreement, however, there are a wide range of opinions about how to achieve this. And these opinions are often in conflict. So from your perspective, what are the most promising pathways for quickly and deeply cutting emissions? Thank you, Sally. And thank you for mentioning my affiliations in the opening. I would be remiss if I didn't mention my friends from the Brookings Institution. I'm a non resident senior fellow with them, and I don't want to hear from them. So I thought I'd better mention that now. There are a number of important pathways for us to pursue deeper decarbonization. Clearly, some of them are longer term. I'll talk about those in a moment. In the near term, we absolutely can't forget about energy efficiency. It's the cheapest kilowatt of energy because it's the one never used. And in as much as we have been focused in the last 10 years on it, we cannot stop that focus. And in as much as we are many of us are in our homes more working from home more. We really need to be focused on being efficient in our consumption of energy, how we use it, how we set our thermosets and run water, how we water the plants outside in the grass, etc. I have to mention that first. A key area for us globally is harnessing greater emissions reductions in the transportation sector. Clearly, that is an area on which we could collectively focus together. If we did that around the world, we could have a greater impact sooner. I was at an event in the fall, which seems like forever ago, in Paris and Fatih Barol, who is the head of IEA spoke there a room reference the International Energy Administration earlier. I have a staggering statistic. Today, almost half of the cars sold in the US, and a third of the cars sold in Europe are SUVs. And we had really been under this illusion that we were focusing more on smaller cars, compact cars, more efficient cars, but we're actually still using heavier cars and trucks that are consuming greater amounts of fuel. And so we really should focus to a greater degree on how we gain efficiencies in heavy duty transport in renewable fuel sources and, yes, incorporating infrastructure to support greater use of electric vehicles. So those are some longer term. I'm very excited about the potential of hydrogen and also a direct capture, direct air capture technologies, of course, carbon capture and sequestration, because we know that gas will still be used for some time to come. So we need to focus on how to make that work in those efforts more efficient. I can't say enough about the promise and the hope of integrating energy storage of all types, but battery storage significantly. And these are the most promising pathways in my opinion. Terrific. So as a follow up, so what do you think are the major risks that we need to consider as we reduce emissions and, you know, what kind of balances do we need to strike as we pursue getting towards a net zero economy. Thank you, Sally. I harken back to my time as a regulator and I think it's important that we think about it in this way. Many times in this in these dialogues, we are quick to discount what's not good and what, what is competing with the other. And I think, first of all, we have to focus on affordability. And as much as we need to move quickly to focusing on limiting the rise of the global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius, we also need to make sure that that consumers who pay for so much of this work can afford to do it. It's critical now in the midst of this pandemic and Sally I love the way you teed up I call it as this triple pandemic that we're in. And so the economic pandemic is real, it's critical, and we can't stand up about focusing on affordability. We can also equally urge those who are working in this area to think about diversity, think about diversity of supply of sources of resources of technologies, we, we absolutely need it all and so we have to be very nimble and flexible and not be real quick to judge one or the other. Let's see how we can get them all moving in the same direction and helping us to focus on reducing carbon emissions. And then finally, other important considerations include reliability and resilience for the reasons I mentioned before, but as we are developing developing these pathways and getting them launched and moving ahead. We have to be focused on reliability. And that is why the work of regulators around the world has been critically important. And it's been an honor to work with regulators and commissioners around the globe who have been focused on not simply keeping the lights on but doing so as we undertake this complex work of retiring sources that are no longer needed or are more carbon intensive, while also ramping up technologies and tools to aid in this effort and so again, resilience will be a prominent focus for us nationally. We can't ignore it because we continue to see globally issues and concerns around attacks on the grid. And let me say attacks on the grid of all types. Although we've been speaking of cyber and national security threats, but there are others, severe weather events with the onslaught of climate change we are seeing ocean temperatures higher than they've ever been. Winter storms colder than they've ever been summers hotter than they've ever been, etc, etc. Wildfires burning longer and hotter and are more destructive than they've ever been. So we are experiencing unprecedented threats to the grid of all types. And I shouldn't leave out physical attacks to the grid and so we have to be able to, as we say, talking to gum at the same time walking to gum at the same time. And so we have to focus on every one of these elements and we can't let one slip through the cracks. So thank you very much everyone back over to you. Sure. So, collect, let's talk about reform, because there's a lot of discussion in this energy transition that we need reform at both the federal and the state level. As you know, we are likely to have deep integration of renewables, the grid was never quite designed for renewables, even the markets, etc. We have distributed energy researchers like electric vehicles, battery storage, Europe top solar, etc. And so we not only seem to need reforms and innovation and wholesale market design. But there's a lot of talk about, you know, reform of the utility business model. A lot of that is based on, you know, assured returns and asset investments. And that increases the retail rates whereas we are now finding the wholesale rates are actually going down so there's a big gap up there. So given these trends and the call for reform, what is your vision? I mean, you've been at the state level and the federal level. What is your vision of reform measures at these levels that will help us prepare for the future? Thank you. And I should put a word in here about the incredible reforms that have been underway around the world. We have been very supportive of our friends in Mexico and their energy reform efforts. And in Canada, for instance, in Ontario where they have been focused on a review of their energy regulatory scheme. My vision is for greater alignment, and I'll speak here about the US but I believe these comments could well apply in a number of places, even the ones I've mentioned, greater alignment among the work of the federal and state regulators. In the US and I think especially our friends in Europe like to think of the ways in which we regulate this work in the US as a patchwork. And some don't quite understand it. It's really worked well for us because we've been able to allow what works well in states and regions to dominate and to be prominent and prevalent. However, there is a need in order to better align the utility business models at the local or retail and distribution level that occurs in states and municipalities or cities and towns, to align those objectives more with what is happening at the federal level. To be clear, all regulators are focused on the objectives we've really talked about so nicely here until this point focusing on access, affordability, reliability, resilience, diversity of sources and resources. We also need to support innovation in the utility business model. For instance, supporting greater integration of nuclear or for instance, technology such as energy storage. How can we align that work at the retail and distribution level with what is happening at the federal level and aligning that with how wholesale electricity markets operate there. My vision is for greater alignment and when I was at FERC we attempted to work a bit on that. It's so complex that I don't know if we'll have it mastered in five or 10 years. But how we align and support investment so that we really provide greater regulatory certainty, transparency that will support greater investment in not only research and development that's critical and we have to support more of that, but also integrating these newer technologies where we find them where they are viable and deployable in order to support this great of transition. Clearly energy storage is a great example of that. How and clearly FERC's recent activity I hope we get a chance to talk more about that. It started I must say when I was at FERC and Chairman Norman Bay led the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and we developed an energy storage policy statement that really was a combination of efforts to explore what are the barriers to integrating greater amounts of energy storage and then what can we as regulators do about it. And so FERC said about the journey of directing regional transmission organizations and independent system operators to begin to remove those barriers and it's a very technical effort, practical yes, technical as well. Removing or even amending business practice manuals and policies and procedures amending those to reflect energy storage and to be fair to those ISOs, RTOs or BSOs for places around the world. Energy storage wasn't viable and able to compete in markets at the time that those structures were developed but now they're here and so it is incumbent upon us as regulated systems to envision what is coming and to prepare for it. In other words, we have to do better than to respond. We actually have to going to use a Wayne Gretzky quote, skate where the puck is going to be. And so we haven't done the best job of that as regulators and so I suggest that greater alignment among the federal level, the state level, and then what's happening in the industry would yield us greater results more quickly. Let me give you, let me follow up with that with with an example. Let us say one region of the country has very cheap clean electricity. And the other region has high demand for clean electricity. And if you if they sell the electricity from Region A to Region B, the prices would go up and the local people in Region A may not want this to happen. Whereas it is good for the country to actually share the electricity across different regions. And so, you know, that's a, you know, you have a global optimization for the nation. And but you also need local so I agree with you on on the what Justice Brandeis said that we have the 50 laboratories of democracy going on, but at the same time, there are interests that may not quite align. So how do you resolve that in an amicable way. Well, I will tell you and I'll speak from experience during my time at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. When I spoke of beginning this journey with regard to market operations, we wanted to and let me speak for those who are joining just a bit about markets. And in the truest sense, they are meeting places. It's a marketplace for the exchange of energy. And so in the purest sense, we should absolutely motivate and encourage and drive the scenario that Arun described in making sure that this low cost energy is available for consumers wherever they are to be able to benefit from it. And that's really the beauty of this complex grid. In our in the US and our wholesale electric market operations. It's not that simple, because we have a lot of states and regions with policy objectives and policy goals that are really driving what is happening in their states. A state may have a renewable energy standard or a city may have a goal or a utility just yesterday Southern company in based in Georgia in the US they have the state has no goal, but this utility it's one of the largest in the US has just announced a net zero energy goal by 2050. And so let's say it's a state that has a renewable energy standard. How will those goals be realized in wholesale energy market and these are the very complex issues that hurt continues to grapple with they grapple with them even as I was leaving the commission, and they still are, and the goal should be not literally to accommodate those goals but really to integrate them, but that is where the challenge really begins because there could be a state that doesn't have a goal, or there could be a rise in energy costs for a certain resource or source. And so these are extremely complex issues that require a great amount of work, and that's why I'm really pleased that for continues to focus on wholesale market operations and that we have so many stakeholders thought leaders and others who are helping to find solutions to these difficult questions. Thanks Collette, these are difficult issues and I think this is, we need wisdom from people like you to really address them. Let me hand over to Sally. Okay, let's move on to the next poll quickly. Okay, so in the United States, what fraction of the primary energy source for electricity generation comes from nuclear energy 5% 1020 or 30%. Okay, let's see what you say. Okay, 10% was the single largest number. Actually, it's, it's, it's nearly 20%. So, yeah, very significant in the United States and this will tee us up for this question very well. You know, since you are a commissioner at FERC, which regulates the markets, let's talk a little bit more about these. And the question is, is, you know, we know that the markets are the most efficient mechanism for reducing prices. But the question is what can and should be done in the case of market failures. And I'll give you two examples. The first one is energy efficiency. This is the lowest cost way to to reduce emissions. On the other hand, for lots of reasons, complicated reasons, we don't see deployment of energy efficiency measures, nearly to the extent that we could. And so one could think of this as a market failure. I'll give you a second example. And that is in nuclear power, nearly 20% of US electricity, carbon free. So there are many reasons to believe that this could and should be an important and electricity source going into the future. At the same time, it's becoming increasingly difficult for nuclear to survive with the current wholesale market structure, because natural gas and renewables are comparably comparably inexpensive relative to to nuclear. Also, nuclear is not as flexible in terms of generation as a natural gas. So my question to you is, you know, are the markets sufficient? Or should we be thinking about augmenting them with incentives or disincentives to ensure that very important things like nuclear power and energy efficiency can survive. That's almost a stumper of a question Sally. I will take them separately. So for energy efficiency, the, I think the pathway to to gain greater improvements there really lies at the state level and state regulators. And let me be clear, because there are many energy and electricity providers that that operate without any mandate or any directive from a regulator, but having said that, in the same way in which, for instance, Farke has been focusing so diligently on energy storage, which is a phenomenal thing. We can do that at the state level with energy efficiency. When I was in Arkansas, I led an effort and I actually was handed the baton by two previous chairmen. But during my tenure, we actually stood up comprehensive energy efficiency programs and by comprehensive I mean, we were focused on developing and executing energy efficiency programs and offerings for every customer class. Residential, even in lighting, commercial and industrial. Now, we were focused on something for everyone. It could be as simple as wrapping a water heater and replacing light bulbs with LED bulbs and weatherization. It could be even more significant for a commercial or industrial customer. Now, all of them would say, you don't have to tell me about saving my electricity bills. It's one of the highest costs that I have and especially for low income people. Electricity costs are a much larger portion of their budget. But we went about and had a great amount of support from the federal level, our friends at DOE again, and also the national laboratories and other groups, technical advisors to really help educate and inform greater ways to drive greater numbers for energy efficiency. And we paired it with incentives. Now, as a regulator, I initially went into it thinking, well, why, why do we need incentives? What we need is a stick. But I was persuaded otherwise and actually supported strongly our effort at rolling out energy efficiency programs with no stick or penalty, but with incentives, which was the carrot to really incent greater involvement and commitment by utilities. And it worked extremely well. And we are still very proud today, not only of the energy efficiency savings, but also of the ways in which it impacted the economic development sector. The direct jobs and indirect jobs that were created from that experience. And so that was one great example of how if everyone is aligned from a market perspective, we can reap benefits in ways we may not even expect. Now then on the nuclear side, which is much more complicated for the reasons I've discussed. And let me say markets are not perfect, but I continue to strongly support the operation of wholesale electricity markets in the US energy and capacity markets. Because of the ways in which they support the dispatch of lowest cost resources to consumers around the country. And with this work, it's very complicated here because nuclear is quite expensive. Now it is true it doesn't. It may not be as flexible so gas of course can ramp up and down, but nuclear is pretty much a, you know, 24 7365 fuel unless it's out for maintenance or refueling or some unusual occurrence and so it is a valuable resource for us to to incorporate more greatly. I have to say to I'm really concerned about our lack of investment in nuclear around the world. And I appeared before the House Select Committee the US House of Representatives just released a report on focusing on decarbonization and how to more greatly impact climate change in the US and I participated in a round table on nuclear energy. We in the US really need to focus on it more. It is a challenge in wholesale markets because it seems not to be able to compete when we're talking about lowest cost resources. This is why we have to align the objectives of the operation of markets and to consider broadening them to support where possible and in ways that aren't an economic the integration of greater sources of energy like energy storage like nuclear that can help us reduce emissions and meet meet these targets that we have. Let me say, although it's quite unfortunate that the US withdrew from the Paris Accord, there are many places around the US that are still very focused. Everyday men and women, mayors, governors and utilities and renewable energy companies and technology companies that are driving this work and I'm so proud of that. We have to continue to focus on this really critical issue and I will say as a federal regulator it was the most challenging issue that I dealt with. And that is saying a lot because there are a lot of tough issues at FERC focusing on overseeing the reliability of the grid across the country. But this issue of how we focus on these objectives and policies that support greater GHG emissions, how we make sure those resources can survive in wholesale markets is a challenging one but we should be committed to it every day to making way for resources such as nuclear but others as well that can help us along the way. Okay, thank you very much. Arun back to you. So let us shift directions for a moment. As you know we're living in a unique moment in history with there's a national global reckoning going on on racial injustice. And the intensity and scale of which we have not seen since the civil rights movement in the 1960s. You and your incredibly successful life story are an inspiration to many young people black and non black. So my question to you is based on what you have encountered in your life and what you've learned along the way. What would be your advice to the youth and to the broader society about how to seize this opportunity now. And like a preamble to a constitution says, form a more perfect union. What should we do now differently that we did not do before. That's a great question and I think we could take another hour talking about that Arun. And I want to give a nod to all of the students that are are sitting in this chat around the world because you are remarkable. And there you have a unique opportunity to impact our globe in ways that we could never envision. And I get emotional about it because these are very difficult times and certainly for us in the US. And it's been heartening to see how we have aligned around the world for this cause and and the global managing partner at my firm, his, his nickname is Sandy Thomas, he says this feels different. Many of us weren't around. When our US civil rights leader, John Lewis, who just passed away, congressman here in the US spoke at the March on Washington or marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. We weren't there. But we are here now and you are here now. And we have to really seize this moment and attack it and focus on it and act in ways that, pardon me, we never envisioned that we never caught ourselves doing. But I'm really hopeful about this generation of young people because they are active, they are strong, they are brilliant, really bright, creative. And there's something about this generation and I'm a bit biased. I'm raising one. My daughter is 19. She's a rising sophomore at Howard University in BC. But this time is like none other in our generation, I would say. And I'm saying our middle aged now. What can young people do. One, I would respectfully urge you to stop thinking that this doesn't concern you. So if you are not minority and you're if you're not African American, I would urge you to embrace the fact that this time that we're in and it's bigger even than a movement. It's bigger than a moment. It's bigger than a movement because we are talking about systemic inequities and inequalities that span hundreds of years. But now they've impacted every single one of us. So we don't have the luxury, none of us has the luxury to say, hmm, somebody else died today. Someone got shot by the police today. Someone wasn't treated fairly at work today. That impacts all of us. So I would urge you to embrace that and embrace that racial inequality affects me and you. I would also urge young people to get educated about the history of it and not and don't feel defensive about it. And, but to be educated and be willing to be educated about what has happened around the world what has happened where you are what happened for us in the US and how did we get to this place and that's for all of us to do. And then I would also urge you to decide that you will do something differently today. So even if you haven't made this commitment that you will make a commitment to do something different if you're in a conversation where someone says something that's inappropriate. Take them to task. And you can do it in a different ways you can say I have to say that makes me uncomfortable or if you're a feisty one like my daughter, you can say that is not okay, whatever you choose, but each one of us can take a role in that today. But finally, I would say do something that supports someone other than yourself. I take this to heart to what are we each doing to make our world more inclusive and welcoming. And so that means we all have to take action so that's all in with that. Let's all do something. Congressman Lewis once said, if not us then who if not now then when, and I think certainly what I've committed to personally in honor of his life and his sacrifice. And also another civil rights leader that that passed away the same day that he did Reverend Vivian. I want to commit today to to do something to improve the ramp world around me. And so thank you for those of you who have participated in protests and done so many other things to really shine a light on the fact that we are not accepting this time anymore, but we can't go back to that we can all just go back to life as usual. So I hope that you will will commit with me to do something differently today. That's a great segue to the student section now. So let me introduce. Let me introduce two students, Carolyn Joe and Juliana Lu Yang. Carolyn just finished her JD at Stanford Law School and will soon be joining DLA Piper, and she spent a summer as an intern at the California PUC. And Juliana is a co-president of the Stanford Energy Club and she's a junior majoring in chemical engineering so let me hand the stage to Carolyn and Juliana. Wonderful. Thank you Collette so much for making the time to speak with us. So we'll be the student Q&As and the first one we have here seems particularly up given your work with international regulators. And the question is, what is one international electricity market design or policy instrument that the US regulatory system could learn from. Some might say carbon pricing, although it hasn't been perfect in places around the world, like in Europe or Sweden or Canada, at least they've done it. And I think we need to focus on it a bit more here in the US. One policy that I would say about which I have been delightfully surprised around the world are the times when I've observed really strong public-private partnerships, and I'll give you two quick examples. And even before I give the examples, let me say in the US we have incredible work underway. I've mentioned DOE a couple of times in the national laboratories around the US, but their work is really critical. The work that we undertake every day focused on research and development and demonstration projects, carbon capture, direct air capture. I have to mention our friends at EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute, and they work with folks around the world on providing the technical expertise and the science to determine what is achievable and what is viable. And clearly there are lots of, I call them missionaries, men and women around the world who are so focused on supporting these structures and processes. So we have a lot of great things going on in the US. But to give a nod to our friends, one that I observed in Spain, which was really powerful with renewable energy integration, specifically wind, the ways in which their energy ministries, their R&D, and scientific agencies, and private-funded organizations, and regulators aligned around this was really remarkable. And on this wind tour I was able to see how this technology is evolving. Long before we went to gearless boxes for wind blades, but looking at the technology and prototypes for how wind blades and turbines were getting the blades, how they could, how much longer could they be, how tall could they be. I remember it standing under one where a prototype and the wind blew so hard it blew my heart head off. And then going to Madrid to Red Electrica and seeing those same wind turbines operating and how it all connected to provide and support a reliable and resilient grid. And then going to a little place called Toledo, an old town where one company had their control room and seeing how they were leveraging then, it was many years ago, technology to stop or start wind tower in Milagro, a place far on the other side of where we were. So the strong public-private partnership was remarkable to me. And I think if more of us leverage that around the world, we could use it to a greater degree to support this work we've been speaking about. The other example I'll briefly mention is in Brazil. And it was great to go there and engage with them around their renewable energy integration and their regional transmission planning and cost allocation efforts. But I was really very impressed with their committed, not only regulators, but also people throughout government in Brasilia and the electric and gas regulator, they were separate there. But also visiting their regional transmission organization and a number of their think tanks and seeing how they are really focused together on a number of objectives. Now, everyone still has a number of objectives that they're working on, but one where they coalesce and focus greatly was on renewable energy integration to really diversify their fuel supply and take advantage of how they could complement and supplement their terrific hydro resources and gas resources as well. So those are two that come to mind. Thank you, Colette, for that really interesting response. And of course, especially with COVID limiting overseas travel, your international perspective becomes all the more valuable and insightful to hear. We can reminisce at least. Yes, we can definitely reminisce. So drilling into so moving on to the next student question drilling in a little bit deeper to US electricity markets, particularly with order 841 FERC has done a lot in recent years to open access to the US wholesale electricity markets. So to that point, what else could the commission do to continue sparing efficient competition from a wider range of energy generation resources. Thank you for the question and I have to applaud FERC. And by the way, in the US that decision in FERC's order 841 was appealed. And because of a jurisdictional question, and our appellate court in the District of Columbia just affirmed FERC's order in 841 it was the order that directed the integration of energy source resources and wholesale electricity markets in regions throughout the US. And that really is going to be a landmark order. We can't really fully appreciate it now. But that order. And again, they this iteration of FERC is picking up the baton from previous iterations is now focused on this critically important resource and I can't say enough about it because we are already seeing co location projects in the US wind and so excuse me wind and storage or solar and storage. Now even try location projects if that's the word where gas is being coupled with that that is going to be really transformational for us in the US and this is an example of how the regulatory process can really drive it now to be fair. There has been some lag, but we have to apply and identify and recognize these advances where they come. I would also say it would, it's critical for FERC to continue focusing on market reform efforts. It's a tough issue. And day to day, FERC decides and makes decisions on matters that are in the hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars, billions of dollars, but this work on market reform work has to continue. And specifically what I teed up earlier and I'll talk about very quickly here, focusing on how to achieve integration of these policy objectives in markets is key. I think if we were able to do that we could focus more greatly on how energy efficiency and nuclear. I think I was speaking with maybe a room about that a moment ago. How these resources can play greater roles. And how we can continue to provide customers with low cost resources so that's my main recommendation. Thank you. The next question I'm guessing is from a law student resonates with me as well. And the question is, how has your study of law and your career as a lawyer influenced your work in energy. And what advice do you have for young lawyers who want to make a difference in the climate and energy space. Thank you for asking that question. I get so excited talking about energy as a career and let me say, I'll confess. When I first began as a very young lawyer, I was really interested in public interest work and my first job was at legal services and my dream was to save the world and help everybody that didn't have help and that's a part of our hope to defend the cause of those who are defenseless oppressed impoverished. And I really took that to heart. But through mentors and champions and advocates. I found my way and you heard in that. I've had many jobs, but I think they have none have been a mistake or coincidence because they've all prepared me well for the work that I do today, even that workforce role that I held really helped me to focus on how as a regulator, I could support the development of our workforce to make sure people were getting trained to be able to harness technological advances making sure we had diversity in our workforce, for instance. But I'll have to admit, I've been a trial lawyer for a number of years a litigator and in civil I did criminal work and then but love civil litigation. One day was asked to take the role and workforce in the governor's cabinet, and then the governor called and said I want to talk with you and I would joke and say, when he called that and then I need to pack up my bags and go to another place. This place is the Arkansas Public Service Commission. I knew that there was an opening but I never thought at all about pursuing it. But I took the opportunity. I'll admit again, two weeks into this job. I thought, oh my, I think I've made a mistake because didn't seem to move me in the way that civil law had. And then I had all these books and primers on the physics of electricity law and I thought, oh my goodness, if I made a mistake. But two weeks later, I think a light bulb went off. Pun intended. No pun intended. And something clicked with me. And I really began to realize how vast this space is. I will say to I was intimidated about. I thought I'm never going to be able to learn this I'm working around people that have done this work for decades and people who appeared before me, who often also thought they were smarter than me. But they, they intimidated me the work itself did because it's so vast it is global. One of my directors came into my office one day and said chairman, no one knows everything. And honestly, it made me kind of breathe aside relief and I really began to dig into it I love it. I will say law has, and my legal background has given given me intuitive thinking ability and a logic to bring to this work that is necessary. So yes, we absolutely need engineers you guys are so important lawyers you couldn't do this work without us either. And it is critical that we get more lawyers who are interested in working in this area because lawyers play a key role of not only supporting the operations in the energy sector, but you really serve a critical and unmatched task of informing persuading advocating. Let's take that order 841 for instance, someone had to bring that matter before the FERC that proposal. Someone had to advocate there before the commission, and then an appeal was filed. A lawyer had to help them with that, but another one had to help pursue and advocate on behalf of the FERC. And so it's critically important that lawyers see themselves here and see themselves being inspired, motivated, change agents in the space, and that we get lawyers working at every level. A lawyer working at a city level, a municipality level is equally important at the state level at the federal level internationally as well. And so my my pathway as a lawyer was very helpful to me, digging in to very mundane technical issues. Yes, I've had to learn a bit of physics and science to and brush up on that. But my background as a lawyer, I truly believe is what has helped me crystallize and and synthesize issues. I translate the work of what is happening in the sector to the regulator, and also to communicate as a policymaker clear objectives and clear sense, send clear signals about how the sector should move together. So I can't talk enough about how much I love this work. I get up every day excited about that. I don't know if you can say that. And it's a blessing if you can. And if you can't say that I urge you to find the thing that about which you can be excited about and energy for me is it without a doubt. Thanks for the question. Speaking as an engineering student that was an awfully persuasive case to seriously consider switching over to legal studies to close out the student Q&A section for our last question. As we saw on Twitter this past week, cyber threats are not only increasing in number but they're also evolving to become more intelligent and more damaging. In the energy sector, cyber threats can break into the industrial control systems that operate our power grid, and even the systems that are used to move oil and gas across borders. So to that point, what role can regulatory bodies play to minimize impact of these cyber threats and reduce the risk to the bulk electric system. Thank you. Great question. And I would say there are a number of things that regulators can do. One, regulators absolutely have to lean into this. So this is a little bit away from their routine work. Certainly when I became a regulator, no one talked to me about sitting in a gift room or a controlled access room with no internet connection learning about threats to the grid, but it's important work. And we have very robust efforts here in the US, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners really works hard to partner with federal agencies like the Department of Justice and the Department of Energy and the FBI to educate regulators about all sorts of attacks on the grid, not just physical cyber threats as well. And so this work is critical. Also, it is imperative that regulators require robust plans for planning for threats to the grid. And so state regulators can do that work. And federal regulators absolutely do. And FERC has a division and a department within the agency that focuses on critical infrastructure and cybersecurity. And so both FERC and the NAIRC commissioners work well together. I would also say there has to be another element of interagency cooperation. And I saw that strongly at FERC, with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and we would hold joint meetings twice a year to really focus on threats of all types. The joint meetings focus on threats in the nuclear sector, but also lessons learned. So what could we learn about threats as you mentioned with regard to infrastructure that we could share with our colleagues at the NAIRC and vice versa. I found those engagements to be very frightening, but enlightening. And I'm encouraged by that important work that is still underway today. Right. On behalf of the student community, Carol and I would really like to thank you for these incredible responses. And we'll turn it back to everyone and Sally for the general Q&A. Well, let's take this opportunity to thank Juliana Kelly. Thanks a lot. Thanks for joining us. Now we move on to the Q&A section for the audience. And let me start by asking you a question on a trend that we are witnessing probably accelerated due to COVID-19 lockdown is that we are moving from in the retail sector moving from buying things in a store to buying things online. And so my question to you is, what do you think about the impact of that on energy use on emissions? And, you know, what's your perspective, are we better off this way or in terms of emissions and energy use, are we not? I love that question. I am sure that many of you watch where I work at home. I can look out, pardon me, over the street or to the street. And I see probably six Amazon trucks a day roll through and FedEx UPS post office trucks every day. So while I am so grateful. And by the way, my 78 year old mother lives with me and my daughter and we are so blessed to have her. She turned 79 this week. I'm careful about going out and who comes into our home because we want to take good care of her and she but she's in better health than I think both of us combined. But so we're grateful that we have the opportunity in a developed world to order groceries online and order things from Amazon. But I'm a little concerned about the lack of coordination and the lack of cohesion and how we do that. And I think we can each take steps and to address that. Do you order groceries every day that are delivered every day? Well, what if you ordered them once a week or, you know, once every two weeks, that's one way I can do my part in helping to reduce some of that. Do I order things from Amazon one at a time or do I order them all together and sometimes they still will ship them separately? Do I need them all tomorrow or can I request that they send them all in one package if possible? These are steps we can individually take to cut down on the, you know, the fuels being used to transport goods. By the way, I just told you about the trucks I saw on my street. I didn't tell you about the ones that I saw on the highway or the planes that fly etc. You get the point. So we can also be thoughtful about how we are engaging with our colleagues now and even things that we do in our homes. When are you washing clothes and when are you cooking etc. So there are a number of steps that we can take that can really demonstrate and act on our mindfulness about the impact and our individual footprints on the globe. Thank you. Sally? Okay, moving on to the next question from the audience. So the question is to please comment on the US power industry's dramatic retreat from public interest R&D. Particularly in light of we're in the time of rapid change. We have aging infrastructure really that was designed for the 20th century. And what are your thoughts on industry public interest R&D? I would say that there are many ways in which we have talked about some of them in which we are leaning into it. Let me say, and I can't say enough about our need to align more with our colleagues around the world in pursuing climate strategies. Even though we as a nation have indicated our withdrawal, I hope that that will change in the US. But in spite of that, we still see the resilience of people and of corporate entities and cities and states that are still committed to that. We still have a number of places around the US that are focused on R&D. I've mentioned our national laboratories. I've mentioned, and I haven't spoken enough about DOE's work in this area on direct air capture, carbon capture and sequestration. Funding and supporting demonstration projects, funding and supporting pilots, and really focusing on technology investments and strategies that maybe we aren't sure are viable, but could well be through testing and demonstration. I also know firsthand of the work happening at institutions like the Electric Power Research Institute, the Gas Technology Institute, and others who are focused on it. As a former regulator, I will acknowledge the tension in supporting research and development through investor owned utility rate making processes. And I think that it is owing to a concern about the ways in which we in the US, what are the boxes that have to be checked in order for your energy supply, your electricity supply to be passed on or paid for by consumers? In the US, it has to be used and useful, and that is a tenet going back to the early 1900s in the US. That means that we can't allow consumers, many of whom are on low incomes or fixed incomes, to bear just any cost. So we really have to set some guidelines about those things for which everyday people and yes, businesses too will have to share in the cost up. So if it is a wind farm, a solar farm, a gas plant that is in operation, yes. If it's prudent and in the public interest, we allow those things to be passed on. It really becomes more difficult, and I could talk about this all day too. If you have an instance where you have a demonstration project and what if it starts and it never goes online and the company has spent millions, should consumers pay for that too? And so we see in the US taxpayers helping, and I think that is very appropriate, that continues to this day and the programs at DOER robust. Can we do more? Yes. And the work at the laboratories and the work at industry-led and supported organizations and institutions, I think, are still working very well, and we need to continue to support those efforts as well, and hence my work with EPRI. And I've been working with them since my time as a regulator. Thank you for the question. Okay, thank you. Arun, back to you. Sure. So let's talk about federal agencies and working with the private sector, et cetera. So you were very gracious about Department of Energy as a former employee, Department of Energy. Thank you so much for that. Are you kidding? You're more than a former employee. You're the founding head of ARPA-E. So I would give you a shout out too, Arun. Thank you. But let's talk about issues that where it's not always, you know, the different federal agencies may not be as well-coordinated. For example, let's take the example of a transmission line building. And the private sector wants to do it. It's good for reducing the cost of renewables by exchanging energy. There are multiple federal agencies. There's FERC, there's Department of Energy, there's EPA, there's Department of Interior, and a BLM involved. This is Bureau of Land Management. And then you have the private sector and you have local entities on rights away, et cetera. So how do you, if you had a magic wand to make all these federal agencies and local agencies and the private sector work in harmony? Because sometimes they're not. What would you do? Oh, I love that question. If I had a magic wand and let me say, you have touched the rune on an area of great challenge for us in the U.S. and I imagine for our colleagues around the world. Transmission line, I would say infrastructure build out, but transmission line build out in particular. It takes an unnecessarily long period of time. And if I had a magic wand, I would create a one place. So under our law right now, anyone that is building infrastructure has to go to that agency first and then has to also comply with a number of very important federal laws regarding endangered species and addressing issues associated with indigenous people, et cetera. Those are really important laws. I don't want to suggest that the Clean Water Act or other Clean Air Act are not important. They're critically important. But if I could wave a wand, I would create an infrastructure bureau where, yeah, another agency. It's a one-stop shop. And that way we could really trim down the amount of time it takes for these evaluations, these really important and necessary evaluations to take place. I would also say there could, we could work better at regional levels at the, I've talked about regional transmission organizations or independent system operators or DFOs. We could work better in those to make sure that the timelines for consideration of projects, cost allocation in the development of them is more streamlined because it takes far too long. So I would love to have that magic wand in my hand. Terrific. Sally, next audience question. Okay, next question. This is about distributed energy resources. And I'm going to broaden the question a little bit. So if we think about the spectrum between distributed energy resources and central energy resources, you know, there needs to be some balance between the two. But the question that that we have here is that, you know, what can utilities and regulators do to facilitate the adoption of distributed energy resources, including storage, and also things like vehicle to grid. So sort of a two part question is, you know, what are your thoughts on the right balance between distributed and centralized resources. And to the extent that distributed energy resources are valuable, what can be done to incentivize greater adoption. Thank you. On the balance, let me say, this is critical. And it's important because it's imperative that we focus on reliability and resilience. And so for mere security reasons, neither one alone is the proper way to go. It, it wouldn't be prudent for us to merely focus on a centralized system. And likewise, we also can't support resilient systems that are completely decentralized. And so it's critical that we have that balance and that we have the proper infrastructure and regulatory support for both and operational support. That's key. And, and we have seen more distributed energy resources coming on to the grid. That's a great thing. But I also don't think the answer is going, you know, 100% micro grids or 100% wireless, you know, no transmission. We really have to be thoughtful about this approach and focusing on what is viable and long term and what supports all of these objectives that we've talked about. Now, what are the ways to incentivize this work, I will say the regulator can play an incredibly important role here, because while the regulator in the US at least. Yes, it's in a quasi judicial role and makes decisions about matters that come before the commission. The regulator also has an important role to play in driving improvements in the regulatory scheme, and certainly focusing on net metering. When I was in Arkansas we revised our net metering rules that was really important, but also many ways that we've observed around the country. I mentioned Georgia their work on solar has been really impressive. Yes, the work happening in California and in the Northeast, especially here, but in places where there is no mandate. I'm really inspired by those because you have to really analyze that ecosystem to see what is driving that work. And I think in many places where regulators are driving change, they are focused on what their potential is and so at the root of that. It's important that the regulator foster cohesive learning engagement. We did that when we were really focused on the wind and solar potential in Arkansas. We brought in folks from NREL and other places, a very dear friend of ours from NRDC, Ralph Kavanaugh, and others to help us understand what is possible where we live and where we worked and within our jurisdictional boundaries. It's critically important because so many of us go to different places and learn, but then we're leaving others behind who can't go to that conference who can't afford that registration fee or who aren't a part of that organization and so it was really education began at home for us there. And then we looked at what was viable and what could be done in a way that would be affordable that empowered us to to encourage nudge or even challenge some of the utilities in our space to get on with it. And I'm really proud of what we're seeing there now on the energy efficiency front on the renewable energy integration front. But certainly, I'm not yet at the place where I would suggest monetary incentives for utilities. I think there are enough reasons that should incent the sector to focus on it. Clearly, the low cost of wind and solar now by virtue of the broadening of technology and the, the widening of the deployment of these resources have improved the cost. And so the ability to engage in different ways to integrate DER is also a pathway because you can enter into a PPA or power purchase agreement or you can build a wind farm or you can co invest with someone else etc you can build a solar farm. And so I'm not at the place yet where I would suggest monetary incentives, but certainly regulators can drive this focus and this investment. And let me let me mention a critically important tool here integrated resource planning processes we use those in Arkansas and I've also helped others around the world. Most recently, including in the Caribbean nation to focus on using this tool to really plan on focusing on what load growth will be in a certain time five years, 10 years, 20 years. What are our resources, what are our capabilities, and how are we going to get where we need to be. And that allows you to focus on your resource potential, and also your policy objectives and operational and practical considerations as well. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for that terrific answer. I run back to you. There are lots of questions and we have only a few minutes left just just the final one. If you may. There's a question about black lives matter. And the question is, could you share some specific ideas of how to support this, especially for the energy industry. And broadly how to increase diversity in the energy industry, especially given your role in C3, both ethnic diversity racial diversity and gender diversity. Thank you. Great question, great question on which to end. So how can we leverage this moment in the sector and really let's thread that needle. I hope first that when our friends around the world here black lives matter. You don't immediately get turned off by that. And I hope you take time to understand what it's about. And for us in the US, it really has been rooted in the killing of mostly men and women who are African American. Black lives matter. Absolutely. But what drove this time that we're in right now is a global alarm about the unnecessary and needless and callous taking of lives that have been focused primarily on a certain ethnicity. How can we then leverage that in energy. I go into so many rooms where I'm still the only black person and still the only person of color. We can all do something about that. And I'm not suggesting that all the rooms need to be all African American that would be good either because diversity of thought is critically important diversity of experience is what drives the richness of our ability to reach innovative and creative solutions and strategies. We can each make sure that we're being inclusive many people on this call you are a manager supervisor. What are you doing to support pathways in the sector. Especially in engineering. They're very few minorities, African Americans, I'd say, in places around the country. What are we all doing to make sure that our work spaces that the entities that serves the people look like the people. And that includes all of us black people Asian Hispanic Latino European Caucasian Native American you name it. We're all included in that. Now then I'm so pleased that you mentioned C3E because that work is so important. This is an initiative with DOE and MIT, and it's been wonderful to work with these women we are working to really shine a light and highlight middle level women so women who are maybe not just starting out in their careers and energy, but our mid level. Many times for women we get there and we stay there we're kind of stuck. It's like a middle layer that we it's hard for us to break through. Some women may not have had the champions and advocates that I have had and still have to this day who many are men by the way. But we focus on highlighting women in a number of areas research working government law finance. And so this work is, it's amazing to see these bright minds, women who have been working somewhere between seven or eight and 15 years in their field, who are game changers and who don't accept status quo. Women who are humbly, thoughtfully keeping their heads down working and focusing on ways to improve the sector and so, especially in clean energy. It's been an honor to work with them and these strategies are ones that we can employ. I started a mentoring program for women energy regulators around the world. I think we're not 50 or now and I've had mentees in Egypt, Turkey, Canada, St. Lucia, and we can all do that. So decide how you will. And maybe you could thread that needle with the do something that I mentioned earlier. What will you do in this space to support diversity and considering the Black Lives Matter movement and our work at C3E are just two ways to do that. So thank you. And I've really been honored to be here with all of you today and thank you for taking the time to listen in and for the great questions. Collette, on behalf of Stanford Energy, thank you so much for joining us today. And to all of you joining us from around the world, we hope you found today's global energy dialogue, both informative and relevant during this unprecedented times. Please join us two weeks from now for a conversation with two remarkable individuals, Paula Gold Williams, who's president, CEO, CPS Energy in San Antonio, and Frank Calabria, CEO of Origin Energy in Australia. Now, while San Antonio and Sydney a thousand miles apart in more ways than one, Paul and Frank are both dealing with issues related to customer choice during this time of COVID-19 and also for the energy transition over the next few decades. So we will explore with them how they as thought leaders and business leaders are dealing with these customer facing issues. So again, thank you again for joining us and we'll see you two weeks from now.