Energy Management and Policy (ENMG)

ENMG 5020 Introduction to Energy Policy

This course provides an advanced introduction to the design and delivery of energy policy at various levels of government in the U.S. and beyond. Energy presents theoretical and practical challenges across many disciplines and professions, especially in the context of economic development and environmental sustainability at scales ranging from local to global. This course is intended to provide a broad overview of the institutions, legal frameworks, technologies, and markets involved in energy policy by exploring theories and case studies across these topics, with an emphasis on the energy transition necessitated by climate change. That said, a full introduction to energy policy requires multiple courses and Penn offers many salient ones across several schools including Law, Wharton, Weitzman, SAS, and SEAS. The primary goal of this course is to teach students how to think—rather than what to know—about energy policy. As such, this course provides both (a) a foundation for students who want to take additional courses on energy law, markets, technology, or policy and (b) a synthesis for students who have taken such courses and want to connect ideas and issues across disciplines and professions. Our seminar sessions will be largely discussion and exercise based to allow students to develop skills as energy policy analysts and to collectively theorize connections between laws, institutions, policy design, and outcomes.

Fall

1 Course Unit

ENMG 5030 Topics in Energy Policy

This seminar will explore a collection of ideas influencing energy policy development in the U.S. and around the world. Our platform for this exploration will be seven recent books to be discussed during the semester. These books each contribute important insights to seven ideas that influence energy policy: Narrative, Transition, Measurement, Systems, Subsidiarity, Disruption, Attachment. Books for 2018 will be chosen over the summer; the 2017 books are listed here as examples: Policy Paradox (2011) by Stone, Climate Shock (2015) by Wagner and Weitzman, Power Density (2015) by Smil, Connectography (2016) by Khanna, Climate of Hope (2017) by Bloomberg and Pope, Utility of the Future (2016) by MIT Energy Initiative, Retreat from a Rising Sea (2016) by Pilkey, Pilkey-Jarvis, Pilkey.

Spring

Also Offered As: CPLN 5350

1 Course Unit

ENMG 5070 Ideas in Energy Policy

1 Course Unit

ENMG 5080 Geopolitics of Energy in Russia and Eurasia

Russia is one of the major players in the international energy market: third largest oil producer after the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and second-largest (after the U.S.) natural gas producers (2019). It is also a top coal and nuclear power producer. But the geopolitical might that the country holds with respect to energy markets stems not as much from how much energy it produces as from how much energy it exports. Today Russia leads global natural gas exports and trails only the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in oil exports. Russia is also reliably one of the top coal-exporting countries. This class will explore the geopolitics of energy focusing on the role of Russia as a leading global energy supplier. In doing so, it hopes to provide a slightly different understanding of global energy that is usually taught from either the U.S. or OPEC angle.

Fall

Also Offered As: REES 5640

1 Course Unit

ENMG 5100 Societal Grand Challenges at the Interface of Technology and Policy

This new collaborative course -- co-taught by faculty from the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, Weitzman School of Design and School of Engineering and Applied Science -- uses societal grand challenges as scenarios for identifying repeatable, process-oriented best practices for solving complex, systemic problems in the energy transition. This course is intended for graduate students with a background in either the social sciences (economics, political science, law, or policy) or who are in STEM programs (science and engineering). This course will complement the material covered in the Kleinman Center Introduction to Energy Policy course (ENMG 5020) taught in the fall. It will be an opportunity to learn from one another and build a holistic understanding of the technical and policy dimensions of the energy transition and the global response to climate change and environmental degradation. The course will be broken into three chapters. For the first third of the semester, we will focus on basics of policy and engineering literacy, with each student bringing their own expertise to the table. The best way to truly understand a topic is to teach it, and this chapter of the course will focus on learning how to talk across disciplines and approach challenges in new and unfamiliar ways. The middle third of this course will be built around case studies of grand societal challenges; some of which have seen considerable progress towards being solved, others which are still the subject of great uncertainty and disagreement. Among other topics, this course will explore: The impact of sweeping standards on building and appliance efficiency; the rapid development and mutual reinforcement of renewable energy technologies and policy; the ability of policy to facilitate healthy competition between technologies (hydrogen vs batteries, for example); The allocation of scarce CCUS resources to abate difficult to decarbonize products like cement, steel, and plastics; the importance of grid regulation and market design in ensuring future energy reliability and affordability; and the need for transition-ready environmental policies that protect ecosystems and communities without hindering access to critical resources (metals, minerals, land, etc.) The final third of the semester will be structured largely around group projects for which students with diverse expertise will work together to identify a grand societal challenge and isolate the technical and policy barriers to solving this challenge. These groups will give regular updates to the rest of the class and will work towards making a meaningful contribution to solving their challenge through collaborative problem solving, design, and research. This course will deliver content learning outcomes about technical, societal, and policy aspects of focal grand challenges, while providing all participants (including instructors) experience and skills to address community-derived problems in teams composed of members from disciplines that rarely collaborate. Over time, this course will serve as a working, iterative “laboratory” on parameters that affect the success of convergence style research and problem solving.

Spring

Also Offered As: EAS 5110

1 Course Unit

ENMG 5120 “Not Just a Commercial Deal”: Contemporary Trends in European Energy Security and Sanctions Policy

The Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has fundamentally altered post-Cold War security norms across the European continent. This includes a reinvigorated Transatlantic approach to supporting European energy security. For example, Western Europe had for years built up a strategic security vulnerability through an over-reliance on Russian hydrocarbon resources, in particular natural gas, as well as critical infrastructure owned by Kremlin-controlled enterprises. Europe is now embarking on a transformational shift to end its longstanding dependence on Russian hydrocarbons that provides an opportunity to both decouple from an authoritarian neighbor and decarbonize its energy supply to address the climate crisis. Meanwhile, policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic have aimed to deprive the Russian government of the financial and technical means of prosecuting its military aggression in Ukraine through comprehensive sanctions and technology export control regimes. This course will explore the history of European dependence on Russian energy resources and critical infrastructure projects and will analyze how the Russian Federation has ‘weaponized energy’ against European democracies before and after it’s invasion of Ukraine, including through trends of strategic corruption and elite capture. The course will assess as a case study the current European energy infrastructure landscape and ask students to propose infrastructure, regulatory, and physical/cyber security strategies from the perspective of a practitioner of transatlantic energy diplomacy. This course will also explore contemporary trends in energy sanctions and technology export controls policies crafted by democratic states worldwide. We will review recent U.S. and European sanctions policies through the framework of existing and proposed Russia sanctions, including analysis of sanctions implemented through Executive Order and Congressional legislation, and similar legislation enacted by the European Union. The course will take a multidisciplinary approach, combining primary source readings with classroom simulations drawing on the historical, policy, science, and technology drivers of effective European energy security strategies.

Fall

1 Course Unit

Energy Management and Policy (ENMG)

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