Talk title: The Inflation Reduction Act: Place-based Policy, Tax Incentives, and Geopolitics

Abstract: The Inflation Reduction Act created a diverse set of funding, financing, and tax incentives to promote investment in clean energy and manufacturing that the Biden-Harris administration is now implementing. That work follows a four-year period of intense legislative activity in the 116th and 117th Congresses as well as the much longer history of U.S. clean energy and climate policy. The legislative process that achieved the Inflation Reduction drew on that long history and the vast library of policies it created over time, and it adapted to the opportunities presented to – and seized upon – by policymakers to respond to changing energy, security, and economic needs facing the nation. The resulting portfolio of tax incentives, funding and financing programs, and other measures in the Inflation Reduction Act and related laws points to the need for reinvestment in energy communities and the always-global context of energy policy.

Speaker Bio:  Luke H. Bassett is a Senior Advisor and the Director of Policy and Program Impact at the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Inflation Reduction Act Program Office. Previously, as a former Senior Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, he advised Chairman Joe Manchin III (D-WV) on climate, renewable energy, energy tax, and research and development policy. In that role, he drafted or negotiated major provisions of the Energy Act of 2020, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Prior to joining the Energy Committee, Bassett was Associate Director of Domestic Energy and Environment Policy at the Center for American Progress and previously served as an appointee at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Bassett has master’s degrees in environmental management and ethics from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Yale Divinity School, a bachelor’s degree from Emory University, and is originally from Milton, West Virginia.

More about the Seminar:

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, big businesses, and more. We're proud to have hosted some of the biggest names in the energy world as well as those just starting out. 

Seminars take place most Mondays during the academic year and typically have an audience of 100+ attendees. 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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