For over 30 years, the Pace Energy and Climate Change Center has been a leader working at the intersection of energy and the environment. We engage government decision makers and key stakeholders with robust research and analysis in law and policy. Over time, the Center has grown from its initial focus on energy regulatory law and policies to tackle transportation and fuels, as well as climate change mitigation and resilience. Whether our aim is improving energy efficiency, advancing renewable energy and distributed generation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions or making our communities more resilient in the face of climate change impacts, 30 years later the Center remains at the leading edge of finding solutions to our energy and climate challenges on the local, state, regional, national and international levels.
Our Center was founded in 1987 as the Pace Energy Project by Dean Emeritus Richard L. Ottinger upon his retirement from the U.S. Congress. Early on, Dean Ottinger recognized the environmental impacts of our supply and use of energy in the United States. From the very beginning, under Ottinger’s leadership, the Center has provided cutting edge research and analysis of energy production alternatives’ social and environmental costs and benefits. Through engagement, the Center was among the first organizations to highlight the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy as alternatives to conventional electricity generation.
In addition to being a force for legal and policy change, the Center trains the next generation of smart energy professionals. Students from Pace Law School are actively involved in the Center’s projects – our interns contribute directly to the creation and development of work products for both domestic and international projects. Students have gone on to careers at institutions central to the energy discussion, such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Foundation, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the New York Power Authority, and the New York Independent System Operator, to name a handful.
