CLA Environmental Law Conference

Jon Welner will moderate a session titled, "The Carbon-Free Electric Grid: Opportunities and Challenges," at the annual California Lawyers Association Environmental Law Conference in mid October. The panel will discuss the particular challenges that affect California, including the risk of black-outs triggered by wildfires and increased power demand resulting from climate change, at the same time that old fossil-fuel and nuclear plants are being taken offline. This panel examines the progress made to date, the challenges that loom ahead, and the issues faced by lawyers tackling different parts of the problem. Key topics to be addressed by the panel include: development of utility-scale battery energy storage systems; delays in retiring old fossil-fuel plants; and the creation of “virtual power plants” by aggregating distributed sources of energy generation or conservation.

Panelists:

• Stacey Crowley, VP, California Independent System Operator (CAISO)
• Claudia J. Morrow, SVP, Vistra Corp.
• Damon Franz, Managing Policy Advisor, Tesla
• Michael W. Webb, City Attorney, City of Redondo Beach
• Sanjay Ranchod, GC, OhmConnect, Inc.

View the Mintz sponsorship page here.