EPIC draws on its expertise in law, policy, economics, and science, to provide rigorous independent research and analysis to decision makers, agencies, and the private sector in the challenging transformation towards a lower carbon society. With academic offerings of energy law and policy classes and clinics spanning local to international, EPIC brings together students, scholars and practitioners in a unique center within the school of law and serving the public interest.
Below are a few of our recent projects related to energy.
EPIC completed an analysis to identify policy opportunities for local jurisdictions in the San Diego region to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This work is included as Chapter 8 of the Regional Decarbonization Framework Technical Report, a science-based policy analysis of deep decarbonization in the San Diego region. Based on a review of the authority of local jurisdictions to regulate or influence greenhouse gas emissions, a review of Climate Action Plans in the region, and an estimate of the GHG reductions that could result from all CAPs commitments in the region, EPIC identified opportunities for further local action and regional collaboration.
The Energy Policy Initiatives Center provides policy and regulatory support to energy startup companies across San Diego, Imperial, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. The network is supported by a grant from the California Energy Commission to help advance California’s energy innovation industry and achieve state policy. The Energy Policy Initiatives Center works in partnership with Cleantech San Diego, which leads the effort, and the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering at the University of San Diego, the University of California, San Diego, San Diego State University, Connect, and Center for Sustainable Energy to deliver needed services.
The Energy Policy Initiatives Center sponsors the Energy Law and Policy Clinic, a unique opportunity for USD Law students to work in partnership with a related state agency to conduct legal research on a topical issue. In addition to learning about a specific energy or climate related issue, students who take the Energy Law and Policy Clinic also learn a range of practical skills. The 2019 CLinic worked with the City of San Diego’s City Attorney’s Office on a topic related to Community Choice Aggregation. For more information see the Clinic webpage.