In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Karen Palmer, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) and director of RFF’s Future of Power Initiative. Palmer has deep expertise in the US power sector and has authored numerous publications on electricity policy drivers and options in power market design and electrification of various sectors of the economy. This episode features two very capable and kind women in celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8.

Hayes and Palmer discuss a new report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine entitled “The Future of Electric Power in the United States.” Karen and her coauthors on this study, including RFF Board of Directors Chair Susan Tierney, were tasked with framing a broad set of issues facing the US power sector over the next several decades and with providing recommendations to a range of decisionmakers on how to address those drivers.

References and recommendations:

“The Future of Electric Power in the United States” interactive site; https://www.nap.edu/resource/25968/interactive/

“The Future of Electric Power in the United States” from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, by Granger Morgan, Anuradha Annaswamy, Anjan Bose, Terry Boston, Jeffery Dagle, Deepakraj Divan, Michael Howard, Cynthia Hsu, Reiko A. Kerr, Karen Palmer, H. Vincent Poor, William H. Sanders, Susan Tierney, David Victor, and Elizabeth Wilson; https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/the-future-of-electric-power-in-the-us#sectionPublications

“Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation’s Electricity System” from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, by M. Granger Morgan, Dionysios Aliprantis, Anjan Bose, W. Terry Boston, Allison Clements, Jeffery Dagle, Paul De Martini, Jeanne Fox, Elsa Garmire, Ronald E. Keys, Mark McGranaghan, Craig Miller, Thomas J. Overbye, William H. Sanders, Richard E. Schuler, Susan Tierney, and David G. Victor; https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24836/enhancing-the-resilience-of-the-nations-electricity-system

Transmission episodes of the “Voltscast” podcast, with host David Roberts; https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/transmission-month-everything-in-one-place/id1548554104?i=1000509879797

“Lessons from the Texas mess” episode of the “Voltscast” podcast, with host David Roberts; https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/lessons-from-the-texas-mess/id1548554104?i=1000510532364

“A Shock to the System: Restructuring America’s Electricity Industry” by Timothy J. Brennan, Karen L. Palmer, Raymond J. Kopp, Alan J. Krupnick, Vito Stagliano, and Dallas Burtraw; https://www.routledge.com/A-Shock-to-the-System-Restructuring-Americas-Electricity-Industry/Brennan-Palmer-Kopp-Krupnick-Stagliano-Burtraw/p/book/9780915707805

“Alternating Currents” by Timothy J. Brennan, Karen L. Palmer, and Salvador A. Martinez; https://www.routledge.com/Alternating-Currents-Electricity-Markets-and-Public-Policy/Brennan-Palmer-Martinez/p/book/9781891853074