| Tue, Aug 17, 2021 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT |
How Clean Energy State Policy Attracts Businesses and Capital
Context: As the shift to renewable sources of power accelerates, supportive state policies that respond to stakeholder demands for clean energy solutions can win business.
Insights: The third webinar in this ASU series convenes energy policy officials from several states to discuss how they use state clean energy goals and requirements to support a pro-clean air, pro-growth economy to attract new businesses and investments in their states.
Jobs: Renewable energy is not a standalone issue: it impacts jobs and job quality variably in different communities and industry sectors, requiring place-based economic solutions.
Takeaways: Learn from the panelists how their organizations’ journeys to clean energy policies can chart a path for legislators, business leaders, and consultants.
PANELISTS
 Governor Bill Ritter was elected Colorado’s 41st governor in 2006 and was the District Attorney of Denver from 1993-2005. During his four-year term as Governor, Ritter established Colorado as a national and international leader in clean energy by building a New Energy Economy. After leaving the Governor’s Office, Ritter founded the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University, which works with state and federal policymakers to create clean energy policy throughout the country. Governor Ritter is the author of Powering Forward – What Everyone Should Know About America’s Energy Revolution. He was the chair of the Board of Directors of the Energy Foundation and currently serves on board of The Climate Group American and the Board of Trustees of The Nature Conservancy. |
 Gary Dirks Senior Director Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory and LightWorks® Gary Dirks is senior director of LightWorks®, which capitalizes on ASU’s strengths in solar energy and other light-inspired research. He is also the Julie Wrigley Chair of Sustainable Practices and a professor of practice in the School of Sustainability and distinguished sustainability scientist. Before joining ASU, Dirks was the president of BP Asia-Pacific and the president of BP China. In China, he grew BP from an operation with fewer than 30 employees and no revenue to more than 1,300 employees and revenues of about $4 billion in 2008. |  Kristin Mayes Professor of Practice School for Future of Innovation in Society, ASU College of Global Futures Professor Mayes served on the Arizona Corporation Commission from 2003 – 2010. She co-authored the Arizona Renewable Energy Standard, an aggressive standard that requires that by 2025 utilities must generate 15 percent of their overall energy portfolio from renewable sources, like wind-solar, biomass, biogas, geothermal and other technologies. She also helped establish one of the most ambitious energy efficiency standards in the nation, requiring utilities to sell 22% less energy by 2020 than they would have under current forecasts. |  Greg LeRoy Executive Director Good Jobs First Dubbed “the leading national watchdog of state and local economic development subsidies,” “an encyclopedia of information regarding subsidies,” and “God’s witness to corporate welfare,”* Mr. LeRoy founded Good Jobs First in 1998 upon winning the Public Interest Pioneer Award. He has been training and consulting for state and local governments, associations of public officials, labor-management committees, unions, community groups, tax and budget watchdogs, environmentalists, and smart growth advocates for more than 30 years. |
