Abstract: We are at the beginning of one of the most significant industrial transitions in history, moving from an economy based almost exclusively on carbon-producing fossil energy–coal, oil and gas–to one eventually fueled by renewable energy–sun, wind, steam, and innovative technologies that generate and enable power sources. The Biden-Harris Administration and Congress have accelerated this energy transition through passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the single greatest piece of climate legislation ever passed. IRA, along with other federal investments in America, have changed everything. In doing so, the United States has gone from laggard to leader in driving an industrial economy based on clean energy. Now, as the energy train has left the station, the 2024 presidential election will play a critical role in this transition, determining whether the train accelerates on pace or hits a switch turning its direction.

Bio: Karen Skelton has advised U.S. Presidents, Vice Presidents, U.S. Cabinet Secretaries, Governors, First Ladies, Fortune 100 corporations, philanthropies, Boards of Directors for 35 years.

Skelton is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University in the Precourt Institute for Energy at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.  Skelton will lecture and write about America’s energy transition and the implications of the 2024 elections on the transition’s speed and scale.

Most recently, Skelton served as a Senior Policy Advisor to both Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and the President’s top Climate Diplomat, John Podesta. During this time, Skelton played a key role in managing political, policy, and communication strategies to accelerate the nation’s industrial policy transition to a clean energy economy. Skelton collaborated with private sector stakeholders to gain access to hundreds of billions of dollars in grants, tax credits, loans, and other investments that address the climate crisis, rebuild American manufacturing, and lower costs for consumers and businesses.

Skelton’s work included co-leading the establishment of the Interagency Working Group on Coal & Power Plant Communities & Economic Revitalization (See www.Energycommunities.gov), now responsible for delivering over $170 billion in federal resources to help revitalize America’s energy communities; organizing private and public sector engagement in key states as Congress considered support for the Inflation Reduction Act; managing a White House effort to build a coalition of philanthropies which have contributed so far over $3 Billion in pooled funds and aligned tables to implement the President’s climate package, heading the inaugural launch of the DOE’s Foundation of Energy Security and Innovation.

Karen Skelton joined the Biden-Harris Administration from California, where she spent two decades running and selling two companies. Skelton spent a decade as the founder of Skelton Strategies, a policy and political consulting firm working on energy, climate, technology, economic justice, and women’s health. Skelton served as Governor Jerry Brown's Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Global Climate Action Summit, where she drove high-level corporate commitments designed to combat climate change. With Maria Shriver, Skelton founded and managed a series of groundbreaking reports on the transformational role of women in American life, including an Emmy-nominated documentary. Clients included Governor

Schwarzenegger’s Women’s Conference, HBO, Bloom Energy, Segway, the National Basketball Association, UCLA’s Baseball team, T-Mobile, Google, YouTube, Amazon, John Doerr and Mayor Willie Brown.

Previously, Skelton served in the Clinton-Gore Administration as Vice President Al Gore’s first Political Director and Deputy Political Director to the President, in the U.S. Departments of Justice as a prosecutor, and at the United States Department of Transportation as Chief Counsel of the Federal Highway Administration.

Skelton earned her B.A. in English with Honors from UCLA, a Master’s degree from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a J.D. from the UC Berkeley Law School.

Skelton and her husband, a life-long public defender, live in Sacramento and have two grown daughters and one lively Brittany spaniel.

The Stanford Energy Seminar has been a mainstay of energy engagement at Stanford for nearly 20 years and is one of the flagship programs of the Precourt Institute for Energy. We aim to bring a wide variety of perspectives to the Stanford community – academics, entrepreneurs, utilities, non-profits, and more.

Anyone with an interest in energy is welcome to join one seminar or all of them! You can enjoy seminars in the following ways:

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