These kinds of events below are happening all over the world every day and most of them, now, are webcast and archived, sometimes even with accurate transcripts. Would be good to have a place that helped people access them. This is a more global version of the local listings I did for about a decade (what I did and why I did it at http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html) until September 2020 and earlier for a few years in the 1990s (https://theworld.com/~gmoke/AList.index.html).
A more comprehensive global listing service could be developed if there were enough people interested in doing it, if it hasn’t already been done.
If anyone knows of such a global listing of open energy, climate, and other events is available, please put me in contact.
Thanks for reading,
Solar IS Civil Defense,
George Mokray
gmoke@world.std.com
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com - notes on lectures and books
http://solarray.blogspot.com - renewable energy and efficiency
http://zeronetenrg.blogspot.com - zero net energy links list
http://cityag.blogspot.com - city agriculture links list
http://geometrylinks.blogspot.com - geometry links list
http://hubevents.blogspot.com - Energy (and Other) Events
http://www.dailykos.com/user/gmoke/history - articles, ideas, and screeds
Editorial Comment: I will be traveling for the next few weeks so this is an abbreviated edition. I apologize for the thin pickings.
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Index
———
Reporting on food, waste and climate in America
Friday, May 30
12 - 1:30pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reporting-on-food-waste-and-climate-in-america-tickets-1345384263549
—————
Protecting Our Communities: A Whole-Society Approach to Resilience
Friday, June 6
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
In person and online
RSVP at https://climateadaptationforum.org/event/protecting-our-communities-a-whole-society-approach-to-resilience/
Cost: $15 - $45
Protecting Our Communities: A Whole-Society Approach to Resilience
Friday, June 6
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
In person and online
RSVP at https://climateadaptationforum.org/event/protecting-our-communities-a-whole-society-approach-to-resilience/
Cost: $15 - $45
—————
Frontiers in NeuroAI Symposium
Thursday, June 5 – Friday, June 6, 2025
Harvard, Science and Engineering Complex, 150 Western Avenue, Allston
RSVP at https://secure.touchnet.net/C20832_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=171&SINGLESTORE=true
Cost: $85.00 general admission, $10.00 undergraduate admission
—————
Thursday, June 5 – Friday, June 6, 2025
Harvard, Science and Engineering Complex, 150 Western Avenue, Allston
RSVP at https://secure.touchnet.net/C20832_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=171&SINGLESTORE=true
Cost: $85.00 general admission, $10.00 undergraduate admission
—————
Harvard Voices on Climate Change: Can Insurance Keep Up with Climate Change?
Tuesday, June 3
4:30 PM-5:30 PMET
Online
RSVP at https://web.cvent.com/event/7148e1a4-727b-46df-86a9-7d4ea578c1ab/regProcessStep1
Tuesday, June 3
4:30 PM-5:30 PMET
Online
RSVP at https://web.cvent.com/event/7148e1a4-727b-46df-86a9-7d4ea578c1ab/regProcessStep1
—————
Dance for World Community Conference
Thursday, June 5 - Sunday, June 8
Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://www.danceforworldcommunity.org/conference
Cost: $165
—————
———
Events
———
Reporting on food, waste and climate in America
Friday, May 30
12 - 1:30pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reporting-on-food-waste-and-climate-in-america-tickets-1345384263549
Each year, MIT supports five journalists around the country in developing deeply-reported stories about climate change and its solutions, for the news outlets Americans trust the most: the local and regional newsrooms where reporters write about their own communities. This spring, these MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellows focused on the under-covered climate challenges of the food, agriculture and waste sector—which accounts for over 10% of America's climate pollution and the majority of our powerful, fast-warming methane.
Join MIT's newest class of Fellows as they discuss their work covering food, waste and climate in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas, Maryland and Illinois. Special guest moderator Jenny Splitter, editor-in-chief of Sentient Media, will lead a conversation with our fellows on the diverse audiences they engaged, the challenges and opportunities of climate reporting in local outlets, and how they connected their stories to local values and priorities—for their readers, and for the farmers, waste managers and city and state officials with the greatest capacity to effect change.
About the panelists
Karina Atkins is a Chicago-based environmental journalist covering how climate change is affecting the Midwest. Her fellowship project for the Chicago Tribune explores why Illinois farmland is dominated by corn and soybeans, and what this could mean as climate change scorches and parches the other regions responsible for growing most of the country’s fruits and vegetables.
Carolyn Beans is a science reporter covering food, agriculture, and health from her home base in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her food writing has appeared in Undark, The Atlantic, PNAS Front Matter, Slate, The Washington Post, TED-Ed, The Food and Environment Reporting Network and other outlets. Her project reports on Pennsylvania dairy farmers’ efforts to measure and minimize greenhouse gas emissions, and ultimately earn a return on climate-smart milk.
Elena Bruess covers the environment and climate for the Houston Landing. She has covered water, climate, environment and health issues throughout the Midwest and Texas, including as a Pulitzer Center reporting fellow. Her fellowship project explores landfill pollution, methane emissions, remediation and the historic and disproportionate impact landfills and trash incinerators have had on marginalized communities in Houston.
Nina Ignaczak is an award-winning journalist and editor based in Detroit, and the founder of Planet Detroit, a digital media startup producing public interest journalism on climate, equity, health, and the environment, centering grassroots voices and solutions. Her project project investigates how food waste and methane emissions in Metro Detroit contribute to Michigan’s climate challenges, and explores community-driven solutions to reduce emissions and build climate resilience.
Paul Ruffins was one of the first journalists to cover the complexities of environmentalism in Black communities and served as a delegate to the first People of Color Environmental Justice Summit. Since then, he has been the managing editor for several community newspapers and social justice organizations. His project investigates a pioneering experiment in food composting in Prince George’s County in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., illuminating how it works, whether it is delivering as promised, and how successes can be replicated regionally and nationally.
Jenny Splitter (moderator) is the Editor-in-Chief of Sentient, the only nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to reporting on factory farms, and an award-winning food and climate journalist. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Popular Mechanics, New York Magazine, Vox and others.
About the MIT Climate Project
The MIT Climate Project is a new, whole-of-MIT initiative to respond to the multiple challenges of global climate change. Through this project MIT seeks to become, within a decade, one of the world’s most prolific and collaborative sources of technological, behavioral, and policy solutions—solutions that will change the expected trajectory of global climate outcomes for the better. Learn more
Among the programs housed at the MIT Climate Project is the MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellowship, which since 2021 has supported freelance or staff journalists associated with U.S. local and regional newsrooms in developing high-impact news projects that connect local perspectives, values and priorities with climate change science and solutions. By engaging Americans who are unsure, disengaged, or doubtful about the need to act on climate change, these reporting projects advance the frontiers of public opinion on climate as both the impacts and the solutions to climate change grow more visible in Americans’ daily lives. Learn more
—————
Harvard Voices on Climate Change: Can Insurance Keep Up with Climate Change?
Tuesday, June 3
4:30 PM-5:30 PMET
Online
RSVP at https://web.cvent.com/event/7148e1a4-727b-46df-86a9-7d4ea578c1ab/regProcessStep1
The Salata Institute and the Harvard Alumni Association invite you to the latest installment of Harvard Voices on Climate Change, a virtual series featuring Harvard faculty and fellows on different dimensions of the climate challenge. In this session, HBS’ Peter Tufano, Baker Foundation Professor, and Ishita Sen, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, will explore how climate change is transforming insurance markets. From rising premiums and insurer retreat to questions of financial risk and equity, the conversation will examine how the insurance sector is responding to climate impacts—and what it means for households, businesses, and policymakers.
Hosted by Jim Stock, Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability and Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University.
—————
Frontiers in NeuroAI Symposium
Thursday, June 5 – Friday, June 6, 2025
Harvard, Science and Engineering Complex, 150 Western Avenue, Allston
RSVP at https://secure.touchnet.net/C20832_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=171&SINGLESTORE=true
Cost: $85.00 general admission, $10.00 undergraduate admission
SPEAKER(S) Mark L. Andermann, Ph.D, Professor, BIDMC & Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
SueYeon Chung, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Flatiron Institute / NYU
Yilun Du, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Harvard University
Ali Farhadi, Ph.D, Ai2 & University of Washington
Surya Ganguli, Ph.D, Principal Investigator at Neural Dynamics and Computation Lab
Asma Ghandeharioun, Ph.D, Senior Research Scientist, Google DeepMind
Talia Konkle, Ph.D, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
Konrad Körding, Ph.D, Co-founder, NeuroMatch
Mackenzie Mathis, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, EPFL
Ellie Pavlick, Ph.D, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Linguistics at Brown University
João Sacramento, Ph.D, Research Scientist, Google
Karel Svoboda, Ph.D, Director, Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics
Fernanda Viégas, Co-Director, Insight and Interaction Lab & Professor of Computer Science, Harvard University
Luke Zettlemoyer, Ph.D, University of Washington; Meta
S Registration is now open for the Frontiers in NeuroAI Symposium, hosted by the Kempner Institute at Harvard University. The event will take place on June 5–6, 2025, at Harvard University’s Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), with both onsite and virtual attendance options.
This two-day symposium will explore:
Learning processes in natural and artificial systems.
The impact of machine learning on neuroscience and intelligence.
Advances in AI reasoning and generative capabilities.
Featuring leading experts from neuroscience and AI, the event promises cutting-edge discussions and insights.
—————
Dance for World Community Conference
Thursday, June 5 - Sunday, June 8
Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://www.danceforworldcommunity.org/conference
Cost: $165
Concern about climate change and its disproportionate impact on under-resourced or otherwise disadvantaged communities continues to grow. After decades of persistent advocacy and activism to advance social and environmental justice, recent destabilizing orders from top US government officials are brazenly countermanding advances in climate science, public health, education, diversity, inclusion, equity and other areas. It is no wonder why, in today’s environment, independent artists and arts organizations are looking to expand their role as advocates and activists, to support creative and rational solutions to the critical global issues that ultimately affect us all.
Dance for World Community, initiated in 2009 by a ballet organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts, proposes that dance is particularly well suited to effective advocacy and activism. Inherently social, dance is universally understandable, has great potential to bring diverse people together across cultural divides and can quickly build trust and community cohesion.
Powerful as it is, dance is one of the most under-resourced sectors in America and is underrepresented in many institutional settings. In spite of the steady increases in the number of training and performance centers, established schools and companies are notoriously insular and inward-looking. The sector lacks the inclusive, unified voice it needs to respond to the challenges that now all the arts and other industries are facing in 2025.
How will we as dancers — performers, instructors, choreographers, administrators, scholars, independent dance artists and aficionados — respond to the critical social and environmental crises that can no longer be ignored by any of us?
In this conference, we will examine different initiatives and models, exchange ideas and begin to build the necessary networks to strengthen our efforts to make a difference. Through this shared process, we will rouse the advocate and activist in each of us.
—————
Protecting Our Communities: A Whole-Society Approach to Resilience
Friday, June 6
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
In person and online
RSVP at https://climateadaptationforum.org/event/protecting-our-communities-a-whole-society-approach-to-resilience/
Cost: $15 - $45
When disruptions arise, it is often our neighbors, families, and local networks who step up first. In this Forum, we explore how communities can strengthen the ties that hold them together before, during, and after climate-related events. Featuring voices from across sectors who are community leaders, planners, and practitioners, this discussion will examine how local collaboration, trust, and shared responsibility can help ensure no one is left behind when it matters most. We’ll also explore how to support and sustain our informal networks, “zero responders”, who often prevent challenges from becoming full-blown crises.
Forum Speakers
Meghan Kallman, Rhode Island State Senator, District 15, Associate Professor, School for Global Inclusion & Social Development, University of Massachusetts Boston
Marcie Roth – presenting virtually, Executive Director and CEO, World Institute on Disability
This Forum will be organized in a hybrid format. Attendees have the option to attend in-person OR virtually. Please note that this Forum will NOT BE RECORDED.
—————
Dance for World Community Conference
Thursday, June 5 - Sunday, June 8
Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://www.danceforworldcommunity.org/conference
Cost: $165
—————
Protecting Our Communities: A Whole-Society Approach to Resilience
Friday, June 6
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
In person and online
RSVP at https://climateadaptationforum.org/event/protecting-our-communities-a-whole-society-approach-to-resilience/
Cost: $15 - $45
—————
Keynotes: FERC Commissioner and ISO-NE Board Chair and Panels on the Future of Gas in New England
Friday, June 13
9:00 am-12:30 pm
Doors open at 8:00 for networking breakfast
Foley Hoag, Seaport West, 155 Seaport Blvd, Boston, MA
And online
RSVP at https://6-13-2025-ne-roundtable.eventbrite.com/
—————
Water & Climate
Thursdays, July 10, 17, 24 & 31
12:00 noon & 7:00 pm ET
Online
RSVP at https://bio4climate.org/course-offerings/water-and-climate/registration-for-water-and-climate/
Cost: Early Bird Price = $97 — until May 31; Full Course Price = $145
Events
———
Reporting on food, waste and climate in America
Friday, May 30
12 - 1:30pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reporting-on-food-waste-and-climate-in-america-tickets-1345384263549
Each year, MIT supports five journalists around the country in developing deeply-reported stories about climate change and its solutions, for the news outlets Americans trust the most: the local and regional newsrooms where reporters write about their own communities. This spring, these MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellows focused on the under-covered climate challenges of the food, agriculture and waste sector—which accounts for over 10% of America's climate pollution and the majority of our powerful, fast-warming methane.
Join MIT's newest class of Fellows as they discuss their work covering food, waste and climate in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas, Maryland and Illinois. Special guest moderator Jenny Splitter, editor-in-chief of Sentient Media, will lead a conversation with our fellows on the diverse audiences they engaged, the challenges and opportunities of climate reporting in local outlets, and how they connected their stories to local values and priorities—for their readers, and for the farmers, waste managers and city and state officials with the greatest capacity to effect change.
About the panelists
Karina Atkins is a Chicago-based environmental journalist covering how climate change is affecting the Midwest. Her fellowship project for the Chicago Tribune explores why Illinois farmland is dominated by corn and soybeans, and what this could mean as climate change scorches and parches the other regions responsible for growing most of the country’s fruits and vegetables.
Carolyn Beans is a science reporter covering food, agriculture, and health from her home base in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her food writing has appeared in Undark, The Atlantic, PNAS Front Matter, Slate, The Washington Post, TED-Ed, The Food and Environment Reporting Network and other outlets. Her project reports on Pennsylvania dairy farmers’ efforts to measure and minimize greenhouse gas emissions, and ultimately earn a return on climate-smart milk.
Elena Bruess covers the environment and climate for the Houston Landing. She has covered water, climate, environment and health issues throughout the Midwest and Texas, including as a Pulitzer Center reporting fellow. Her fellowship project explores landfill pollution, methane emissions, remediation and the historic and disproportionate impact landfills and trash incinerators have had on marginalized communities in Houston.
Nina Ignaczak is an award-winning journalist and editor based in Detroit, and the founder of Planet Detroit, a digital media startup producing public interest journalism on climate, equity, health, and the environment, centering grassroots voices and solutions. Her project project investigates how food waste and methane emissions in Metro Detroit contribute to Michigan’s climate challenges, and explores community-driven solutions to reduce emissions and build climate resilience.
Paul Ruffins was one of the first journalists to cover the complexities of environmentalism in Black communities and served as a delegate to the first People of Color Environmental Justice Summit. Since then, he has been the managing editor for several community newspapers and social justice organizations. His project investigates a pioneering experiment in food composting in Prince George’s County in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., illuminating how it works, whether it is delivering as promised, and how successes can be replicated regionally and nationally.
Jenny Splitter (moderator) is the Editor-in-Chief of Sentient, the only nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to reporting on factory farms, and an award-winning food and climate journalist. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Popular Mechanics, New York Magazine, Vox and others.
About the MIT Climate Project
The MIT Climate Project is a new, whole-of-MIT initiative to respond to the multiple challenges of global climate change. Through this project MIT seeks to become, within a decade, one of the world’s most prolific and collaborative sources of technological, behavioral, and policy solutions—solutions that will change the expected trajectory of global climate outcomes for the better. Learn more
Among the programs housed at the MIT Climate Project is the MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellowship, which since 2021 has supported freelance or staff journalists associated with U.S. local and regional newsrooms in developing high-impact news projects that connect local perspectives, values and priorities with climate change science and solutions. By engaging Americans who are unsure, disengaged, or doubtful about the need to act on climate change, these reporting projects advance the frontiers of public opinion on climate as both the impacts and the solutions to climate change grow more visible in Americans’ daily lives. Learn more
—————
Harvard Voices on Climate Change: Can Insurance Keep Up with Climate Change?
Tuesday, June 3
4:30 PM-5:30 PMET
Online
RSVP at https://web.cvent.com/event/7148e1a4-727b-46df-86a9-7d4ea578c1ab/regProcessStep1
The Salata Institute and the Harvard Alumni Association invite you to the latest installment of Harvard Voices on Climate Change, a virtual series featuring Harvard faculty and fellows on different dimensions of the climate challenge. In this session, HBS’ Peter Tufano, Baker Foundation Professor, and Ishita Sen, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, will explore how climate change is transforming insurance markets. From rising premiums and insurer retreat to questions of financial risk and equity, the conversation will examine how the insurance sector is responding to climate impacts—and what it means for households, businesses, and policymakers.
Hosted by Jim Stock, Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability and Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University.
—————
Frontiers in NeuroAI Symposium
Thursday, June 5 – Friday, June 6, 2025
Harvard, Science and Engineering Complex, 150 Western Avenue, Allston
RSVP at https://secure.touchnet.net/C20832_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=171&SINGLESTORE=true
Cost: $85.00 general admission, $10.00 undergraduate admission
SPEAKER(S) Mark L. Andermann, Ph.D, Professor, BIDMC & Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
SueYeon Chung, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Flatiron Institute / NYU
Yilun Du, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Harvard University
Ali Farhadi, Ph.D, Ai2 & University of Washington
Surya Ganguli, Ph.D, Principal Investigator at Neural Dynamics and Computation Lab
Asma Ghandeharioun, Ph.D, Senior Research Scientist, Google DeepMind
Talia Konkle, Ph.D, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
Konrad Körding, Ph.D, Co-founder, NeuroMatch
Mackenzie Mathis, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, EPFL
Ellie Pavlick, Ph.D, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Linguistics at Brown University
João Sacramento, Ph.D, Research Scientist, Google
Karel Svoboda, Ph.D, Director, Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics
Fernanda Viégas, Co-Director, Insight and Interaction Lab & Professor of Computer Science, Harvard University
Luke Zettlemoyer, Ph.D, University of Washington; Meta
S Registration is now open for the Frontiers in NeuroAI Symposium, hosted by the Kempner Institute at Harvard University. The event will take place on June 5–6, 2025, at Harvard University’s Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), with both onsite and virtual attendance options.
This two-day symposium will explore:
Learning processes in natural and artificial systems.
The impact of machine learning on neuroscience and intelligence.
Advances in AI reasoning and generative capabilities.
Featuring leading experts from neuroscience and AI, the event promises cutting-edge discussions and insights.
—————
Dance for World Community Conference
Thursday, June 5 - Sunday, June 8
Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://www.danceforworldcommunity.org/conference
Cost: $165
Concern about climate change and its disproportionate impact on under-resourced or otherwise disadvantaged communities continues to grow. After decades of persistent advocacy and activism to advance social and environmental justice, recent destabilizing orders from top US government officials are brazenly countermanding advances in climate science, public health, education, diversity, inclusion, equity and other areas. It is no wonder why, in today’s environment, independent artists and arts organizations are looking to expand their role as advocates and activists, to support creative and rational solutions to the critical global issues that ultimately affect us all.
From the muralist who mobilizes an entire community to paint uplifting images in a depressed urban space, to the composer who writes a symphony to evince the destruction that humanity is inflicting on the planet’s ecological systems, artists of all media and forms continue to respond to the urgencies of our age.
Dance for World Community, initiated in 2009 by a ballet organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts, proposes that dance is particularly well suited to effective advocacy and activism. Inherently social, dance is universally understandable, has great potential to bring diverse people together across cultural divides and can quickly build trust and community cohesion.
Powerful as it is, dance is one of the most under-resourced sectors in America and is underrepresented in many institutional settings. In spite of the steady increases in the number of training and performance centers, established schools and companies are notoriously insular and inward-looking. The sector lacks the inclusive, unified voice it needs to respond to the challenges that now all the arts and other industries are facing in 2025.
How will we as dancers — performers, instructors, choreographers, administrators, scholars, independent dance artists and aficionados — respond to the critical social and environmental crises that can no longer be ignored by any of us?
In this conference, we will examine different initiatives and models, exchange ideas and begin to build the necessary networks to strengthen our efforts to make a difference. Through this shared process, we will rouse the advocate and activist in each of us.
—————
Protecting Our Communities: A Whole-Society Approach to Resilience
Friday, June 6
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
In person and online
RSVP at https://climateadaptationforum.org/event/protecting-our-communities-a-whole-society-approach-to-resilience/
Cost: $15 - $45
When disruptions arise, it is often our neighbors, families, and local networks who step up first. In this Forum, we explore how communities can strengthen the ties that hold them together before, during, and after climate-related events. Featuring voices from across sectors who are community leaders, planners, and practitioners, this discussion will examine how local collaboration, trust, and shared responsibility can help ensure no one is left behind when it matters most. We’ll also explore how to support and sustain our informal networks, “zero responders”, who often prevent challenges from becoming full-blown crises.
Forum Speakers
Meghan Kallman, Rhode Island State Senator, District 15, Associate Professor, School for Global Inclusion & Social Development, University of Massachusetts Boston
Marcie Roth – presenting virtually, Executive Director and CEO, World Institute on Disability
This Forum will be organized in a hybrid format. Attendees have the option to attend in-person OR virtually. Please note that this Forum will NOT BE RECORDED.
—————
Keynotes: FERC Commissioner and ISO-NE Board Chair and Panels on the Future of Gas in New England
Friday, June 13
9:00 am-12:30 pm
Doors open at 8:00 for networking breakfast
Foley Hoag, Seaport West, 155 Seaport Blvd, Boston, MA
And online
RSVP at https://6-13-2025-ne-roundtable.eventbrite.com/
Keynote Conversation on Wholesale Markets, Reliability, and Transmission in a Changing Landscape
FERC Commissioner Judy Chang and ISO New England Board Chair Cheryl LaFleur
Moderated by Dr. Jonathan Raab
Over the last decade or so, New England states and stakeholders have outlined a roadmap on how to decarbonize every sector of the economy, employing aggressive energy efficiency, decarbonizing our electric grid, and electrifying buildings and transportation. This roadmap has been supported by a myriad of state and municipal laws, policies, and programs, as well as industry and customer investments.
During the Biden administration, there was significant federal support for clean energy and carbon reduction through funding (e.g., the Inflation Reduction Act) and permitting (e.g., for offshore wind). FERC also adopted sweeping new regulations for transmission planning and cost allocation (Order 1920) and for resource interconnection (Order 2023). The early stages of the Trump administration have clearly indicated new priorities, with the suspension of clean energy funding and offshore wind permitting, as well as the potential for tariff policies that could impact the cost of new technologies, and potentially the cost of Canadian electricity imports.
This important keynote conversation between FERC Commissioner Judy Chang and current ISO New England Board Chair (and former FERC Chair) Cheryl LaFleur, moderated by Dr. Jonathan Raab (Roundtable Convener and former Moderator of the FERC/NARUC Transmission Task Force), will expore a wide range of issues related to New England’s wholesale markets and reliability. Conversation topics will include the implementation of FERC’s transmission rules affecting regional and inter-regional planning, cost allocation, and interconnection. The discussion will also explore how New England can ensure winter season resource adequacy as New England transitions from summer to winter peaking system, with load growth from electrification and AI. As part of this conversation, we will touch on FERC’s expected new rulemaking related to co-location of generation and data centers. We will also explore how markets need to evolve to flexibly accommodate what may be a very different set of generation resources in the future then we have now.
Future of Gas in Buildings and Implications for the Gas Distribution System
Most New England states are committed to weaning buildings off fossil fuels as soon as possible and no later than 2050. Key strategies include continuation of aggressive programs to improve building shell efficiency, newer initiatives to electrify heating systems with heat pumps, and pilots focused on networked geothermal. As the use of natural gas is substantially reduced, many thorny issues arise regarding investment in the maintenance of the gas distribution system, and the allocation of potentially stranded assets to remaining gas customers.
In this panel, we will explore the policies and programs currently in place or being contemplated to transition from the widespread use of natural gas to electricity in our buildings in an effective, affordable, and fair way. These include requiring gas local distribution companies (LDCs) to conduct extensive non-pipe alternative analyses; integrated gas and electric planning; gas line extension, leak prone pipe replacement, and pipeline retirement policies; incentives for electrification (an increasing focus of long-standing state energy efficiency programs), networked geothermal heat initiatives, and Clean Heat Standards.
To discuss these initiatives and related issues, we’ve assembled a great panel comprising:
Jamie Van Nostrand, Chair, Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, will discuss the potential ramifications of the numerous proceedings underway in Massachusetts to address the gas transition, including its integrated gas and electric planning proceeding, the LDCs’ climate compliance plans (covering non-pipe alternative analyses) due on April 1st, line extension policies, and the next Three Year Energy Efficiency Plan.
Caroline Hon, Vice President, New England Regulation and Pricing, National Grid, will discuss Grid’s findings and the implications of its new non-pipe alternative analysis as well as its broader integrated energy planning across both gas and electricity.
Richard Cowart, Principal, Regulatory Assistance Project, will discuss how a Clean Heat Standard would work to mandate a transition from gas, and its status in states currently considering this.
Future of Gas in the Electricity System
Billions of dollars have been spent in New England over the last two decades to build natural-gas-fired power plants. These facilities provided nearly half the of the electric generating capacity (14,000 MWs) and over half of electricity production in 2024. The transition from coal- and oil-fired generation to more efficient gas-fired generation has reduced both the costs and the carbon emissions of New England’s electricity system. Now, however, New England states are seeking ways to wean the electricity system from all fossil fuels, including natural gas, under collective mandates to decarbonize the electricity system. Meanwhile, overall electricity demand is projected to increase substantially for the first time in decades as a result of electrification of the building and transportation sectors and the likelihood of new energy-intensive data centers.
This next phase of decarbonizing New England’s electricity system, between now and 2050, raises many complex economic and operational challenges with respect to the use of natural gas. Perhaps the greatest long-term challenges might be: how to provide electricity without natural gas during times when solar and/or wind resources are not available, and how to provide electricity during critical peak hours. If we do not have sufficient gas-fired generation, what will be the reliable alternative—short- and long-duration storage? Also, how can we manage any transition away from natural gas in the electricity system in ways that are not prohibitively expensive and that ensure resource adequacy? Relatedly, as we may need a portion of our gas-fired generation plants for the forseeable future, how do we ensure that their owners have sufficient revenues to remain solvent as we ramp down their use?
To discuss these issues, we have assembled a panel representing diverse interests and perspectives, including:
Dustin Meyer, Senior Vice President, Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs, American Petrolum Institute, will provide API’s perspective on the importance of natural gas for electric generation and for our economy, as well as how the supply of natural gas and the potential for new pipeline(s) into New England may change under the new Administration.
Carrie Zalewski, Vice President, Transmission and Electricity Markets, American Clean Power Association (and former Illinois Commerce Commission Chair), will share her national organization’s perspective on the need and opportunities for storage to harmonize gas and electric systems, provide flexibility and reliability for the grid, and the importance of making the transition as expeditiously as possible.
Dan Dolan, President, New England Power Generators Association, will share NEPGA’s perspective on the important evolving role that natural gas may need to play in the New England power grid through the decarbonization transition.
Dr. Elizabeth A. Stanton, Founder and Executive Director, Applied Economics Clinic, will share recent case studies on clean energy alternatives and opportunities to replace existing natural gas generation during critical peak periods.
—————
Water & Climate
Thursdays, July 10, 17, 24 & 31
12:00 noon & 7:00 pm ET
Online
RSVP at https://bio4climate.org/course-offerings/water-and-climate/registration-for-water-and-climate/
Cost: Early Bird Price = $97 — until May 31; Full Course Price = $145
There’s a crucial piece missing from the climate conversation.
The planet has a built-in cooling system—through the cycling of water—and it’s one of nature’s most powerful, yet most overlooked, climate regulators.
We’ve already passed 1.5°C of warming. We’re beyond the safety zone. Now, we must not only prevent further heating—but also start cooling the planet using fast, affordable strategies that are proven to work!
This eye-opening course reveals how nature manages heat through water. Forests, grasslands, wetlands, and oceans are nature’s air conditioners—cycling water, forming clouds, generating rain, and releasing heat into space. When ecosystems are healthy, they keep the temperatures livable.
But human activities—like deforestation, pavement, and soil degradation—are shutting down these powerful natural systems. Here’s the good news—we can reactivate these vital cooling and hydrological cycles—starting right in our own yards and communities.
Join us for this course and discover:
How water, not just carbon, governs the planet’s temperatures
Why increasing plant cover can cool your community
Simple, affordable techniques already working around the world
The surprising role animals play in rehydrating the land
Why forests are more than carbon sinks—they’re climate stabilizers
Clear, practical steps to restore water cycles where you live
You already know the cooling power of water. Our bodies sweat on a hot day to cool down. All species and ecosystems work the same way—plants, trees, wildlife, people, wetlands, and oceans all help move heat and moisture through nature’s cycles—stabilizing Earth’s temperatures. Let’s harness that power—because nature can cool the planet, if we let it.
Uncover this essential part of Earth’s climate-regulating system—and learn how we can work with nature to restore a safe, livable future.
—————
Friday, June 13
9:00 am-12:30 pm
Doors open at 8:00 for networking breakfast
Foley Hoag, Seaport West, 155 Seaport Blvd, Boston, MA
And online
RSVP at https://6-13-2025-ne-roundtable.eventbrite.com/
Keynote Conversation on Wholesale Markets, Reliability, and Transmission in a Changing Landscape
FERC Commissioner Judy Chang and ISO New England Board Chair Cheryl LaFleur
Moderated by Dr. Jonathan Raab
Over the last decade or so, New England states and stakeholders have outlined a roadmap on how to decarbonize every sector of the economy, employing aggressive energy efficiency, decarbonizing our electric grid, and electrifying buildings and transportation. This roadmap has been supported by a myriad of state and municipal laws, policies, and programs, as well as industry and customer investments.
During the Biden administration, there was significant federal support for clean energy and carbon reduction through funding (e.g., the Inflation Reduction Act) and permitting (e.g., for offshore wind). FERC also adopted sweeping new regulations for transmission planning and cost allocation (Order 1920) and for resource interconnection (Order 2023). The early stages of the Trump administration have clearly indicated new priorities, with the suspension of clean energy funding and offshore wind permitting, as well as the potential for tariff policies that could impact the cost of new technologies, and potentially the cost of Canadian electricity imports.
This important keynote conversation between FERC Commissioner Judy Chang and current ISO New England Board Chair (and former FERC Chair) Cheryl LaFleur, moderated by Dr. Jonathan Raab (Roundtable Convener and former Moderator of the FERC/NARUC Transmission Task Force), will expore a wide range of issues related to New England’s wholesale markets and reliability. Conversation topics will include the implementation of FERC’s transmission rules affecting regional and inter-regional planning, cost allocation, and interconnection. The discussion will also explore how New England can ensure winter season resource adequacy as New England transitions from summer to winter peaking system, with load growth from electrification and AI. As part of this conversation, we will touch on FERC’s expected new rulemaking related to co-location of generation and data centers. We will also explore how markets need to evolve to flexibly accommodate what may be a very different set of generation resources in the future then we have now.
Future of Gas in Buildings and Implications for the Gas Distribution System
Most New England states are committed to weaning buildings off fossil fuels as soon as possible and no later than 2050. Key strategies include continuation of aggressive programs to improve building shell efficiency, newer initiatives to electrify heating systems with heat pumps, and pilots focused on networked geothermal. As the use of natural gas is substantially reduced, many thorny issues arise regarding investment in the maintenance of the gas distribution system, and the allocation of potentially stranded assets to remaining gas customers.
In this panel, we will explore the policies and programs currently in place or being contemplated to transition from the widespread use of natural gas to electricity in our buildings in an effective, affordable, and fair way. These include requiring gas local distribution companies (LDCs) to conduct extensive non-pipe alternative analyses; integrated gas and electric planning; gas line extension, leak prone pipe replacement, and pipeline retirement policies; incentives for electrification (an increasing focus of long-standing state energy efficiency programs), networked geothermal heat initiatives, and Clean Heat Standards.
To discuss these initiatives and related issues, we’ve assembled a great panel comprising:
Jamie Van Nostrand, Chair, Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, will discuss the potential ramifications of the numerous proceedings underway in Massachusetts to address the gas transition, including its integrated gas and electric planning proceeding, the LDCs’ climate compliance plans (covering non-pipe alternative analyses) due on April 1st, line extension policies, and the next Three Year Energy Efficiency Plan.
Caroline Hon, Vice President, New England Regulation and Pricing, National Grid, will discuss Grid’s findings and the implications of its new non-pipe alternative analysis as well as its broader integrated energy planning across both gas and electricity.
Richard Cowart, Principal, Regulatory Assistance Project, will discuss how a Clean Heat Standard would work to mandate a transition from gas, and its status in states currently considering this.
Future of Gas in the Electricity System
Billions of dollars have been spent in New England over the last two decades to build natural-gas-fired power plants. These facilities provided nearly half the of the electric generating capacity (14,000 MWs) and over half of electricity production in 2024. The transition from coal- and oil-fired generation to more efficient gas-fired generation has reduced both the costs and the carbon emissions of New England’s electricity system. Now, however, New England states are seeking ways to wean the electricity system from all fossil fuels, including natural gas, under collective mandates to decarbonize the electricity system. Meanwhile, overall electricity demand is projected to increase substantially for the first time in decades as a result of electrification of the building and transportation sectors and the likelihood of new energy-intensive data centers.
This next phase of decarbonizing New England’s electricity system, between now and 2050, raises many complex economic and operational challenges with respect to the use of natural gas. Perhaps the greatest long-term challenges might be: how to provide electricity without natural gas during times when solar and/or wind resources are not available, and how to provide electricity during critical peak hours. If we do not have sufficient gas-fired generation, what will be the reliable alternative—short- and long-duration storage? Also, how can we manage any transition away from natural gas in the electricity system in ways that are not prohibitively expensive and that ensure resource adequacy? Relatedly, as we may need a portion of our gas-fired generation plants for the forseeable future, how do we ensure that their owners have sufficient revenues to remain solvent as we ramp down their use?
To discuss these issues, we have assembled a panel representing diverse interests and perspectives, including:
Dustin Meyer, Senior Vice President, Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs, American Petrolum Institute, will provide API’s perspective on the importance of natural gas for electric generation and for our economy, as well as how the supply of natural gas and the potential for new pipeline(s) into New England may change under the new Administration.
Carrie Zalewski, Vice President, Transmission and Electricity Markets, American Clean Power Association (and former Illinois Commerce Commission Chair), will share her national organization’s perspective on the need and opportunities for storage to harmonize gas and electric systems, provide flexibility and reliability for the grid, and the importance of making the transition as expeditiously as possible.
Dan Dolan, President, New England Power Generators Association, will share NEPGA’s perspective on the important evolving role that natural gas may need to play in the New England power grid through the decarbonization transition.
Dr. Elizabeth A. Stanton, Founder and Executive Director, Applied Economics Clinic, will share recent case studies on clean energy alternatives and opportunities to replace existing natural gas generation during critical peak periods.
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Water & Climate
Thursdays, July 10, 17, 24 & 31
12:00 noon & 7:00 pm ET
Online
RSVP at https://bio4climate.org/course-offerings/water-and-climate/registration-for-water-and-climate/
Cost: Early Bird Price = $97 — until May 31; Full Course Price = $145
There’s a crucial piece missing from the climate conversation.
The planet has a built-in cooling system—through the cycling of water—and it’s one of nature’s most powerful, yet most overlooked, climate regulators.
We’ve already passed 1.5°C of warming. We’re beyond the safety zone. Now, we must not only prevent further heating—but also start cooling the planet using fast, affordable strategies that are proven to work!
This eye-opening course reveals how nature manages heat through water. Forests, grasslands, wetlands, and oceans are nature’s air conditioners—cycling water, forming clouds, generating rain, and releasing heat into space. When ecosystems are healthy, they keep the temperatures livable.
But human activities—like deforestation, pavement, and soil degradation—are shutting down these powerful natural systems. Here’s the good news—we can reactivate these vital cooling and hydrological cycles—starting right in our own yards and communities.
Join us for this course and discover:
How water, not just carbon, governs the planet’s temperatures
Why increasing plant cover can cool your community
Simple, affordable techniques already working around the world
The surprising role animals play in rehydrating the land
Why forests are more than carbon sinks—they’re climate stabilizers
Clear, practical steps to restore water cycles where you live
You already know the cooling power of water. Our bodies sweat on a hot day to cool down. All species and ecosystems work the same way—plants, trees, wildlife, people, wetlands, and oceans all help move heat and moisture through nature’s cycles—stabilizing Earth’s temperatures. Let’s harness that power—because nature can cool the planet, if we let it.
Uncover this essential part of Earth’s climate-regulating system—and learn how we can work with nature to restore a safe, livable future.
—————
