California Energy Policy Basics for Entrepreneurs
Public policy influences the opportunities and challenges for emerging clean technologies by setting goals and priorities, establishing market rules and regulations, and providing funding and incentive programs. Therefore, it is important to understand the major actors, venues, and processes involved. This webinar will provide a high-level overview of the energy policy landscape in California focusing on general policy trends, roles and responsibilities of various state agencies and local jurisdictions, and example decision processes.
CSE’s Policy and Regulatory team, Rocky Fernandez and
Sephra Ninow, will deliver the webinar to provide expertise on how to traverse policies to best guide professionals in the clean energy field. Rather than dive into specific policies; however, the intention with this webinar is to share tools with the CalSEED cohort to allow them to navigate California’s energy policy landscape with confidence. Providing insight into these processes may help entrepreneurs build a skillset to stay apprised of policy decisions and trends, while staying active in the conversation as concerned stakeholders. Resource links to key regulatory and legislative entities and relevant documents will be shared with attendees throughout the webinar presentation.
About the Featured Speakers
Sephra Ninow brings nearly 20 years of experience in distributed energy resources and clean transportation policy, with expertise in designing customer incentive programs that drive technology adoption. As Director of Regulatory Policy at the Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE), she shapes the organization's policy agenda to advance its mission to Decarbonize. Sephra holds a J.D. from California Western School of Law and a B.S. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Arizona. She also serves on the Board of the Association for Women in Water, Energy & Environment (AWWEE).
Rocky Fernandez, Senior Director of Policy at the Center for Sustainable Energy, brings two decades of experience in clean energy and transportation policy. His background includes over 13 years in the California Legislature, as well as roles with Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) and the Clean Energy Project.