November 6, 2026
Powering the Future: Navigating the Impact of AI Data Centers and Electrification
While electric load growth in California has been low or flat, it is expected to grow over the coming decades due to electrification of transportation and buildings, growth of AI data centers, and a changing climate. This transition will require balancing expanded grid infrastructure and additional electric supplies with the need to ensure affordability, reliability, and clean energy goals. The Eighteenth Annual Lesley K. McAllister Symposium on Climate and Energy Law will bring together policymakers, industry practitioners, academics, and other experts to explore several aspects of this transition.
- Drivers and Scale of Load Growth: The main factors driving load growth in California, the role of AI data centers, how uncertainty affects forecasting and planning, and how large loads in other Western states affect California.
- Policy and Regulatory Solutions: Lessons learned from other states experiencing growth in large loads, innovative customer rates, large load tariffs, resource planning, grid infrastructure build out and cost, and system utilization.
- Innovation and Technology: Emerging technologies and strategies to manage and mitigate future electric demand, including load shifting, distributed energy generation and storage, and right-sizing all-electric loads.
Join us for a robust and candid conversation about navigating the choices and tradeoffs ahead.
The Symposium is co-hosted by the Energy Policy Initiatives Center (EPIC) and the San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law.
Keynote Speakers
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About
Each year the University of San Diego School of Law hosts the Lesley K. McAllister Symposium on Climate and Energy Law. Legal and policy experts from across the country attend the event, including practicing attorneys, policymakers, and academic experts.
The symposium is co-hosted by the Energy Policy Initiatives Center and the San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law.
Our USD Law School community was saddened to learn that our former colleague Professor Lesley McAllister passed away at the end of August 2017. She was part of the USD School of Law faculty from 2005 until 2013, when she moved to UC Davis. During her tenure at USD, among many other things, Professor McAllister helped to create the Annual Climate and Energy Law Symposium and the San Diego Journal of Climate and Energy Law. She also pioneered the Climate and Energy Law Course at USD School of Law and co-authored a book on the subject.
To honor her contributions to the USD School of Law generally, and to the Symposium and Journal specifically, we have formally changed the name to the Lesley K. McAllister Symposium on Climate and Energy Law.