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Keeping the Lights On: SIPA Launches Sustainable Energy Policy Track
While shortages in food and water must be addressed to create a truly sustainable world, one problem rises above: the need to keep the lights on and the electricity flowing. That is why SIPA has launched a new track of study within its Energy and Environment Concentration – Sustainable Energy Policy. The new track focuses on national and global policies aimed at ensuring a sustainable flow of energy into the future. The track also pays special attention to small scale energy production.
The new Sustainable Energy Policy track joins SIPA’s two other tracks of study in Energy and Environment Concentration. International Energy Management and Policy (IEMP), which launched in 2009, focuses on energy business development and energy policy, particularly large-scale projects that involve extensive interaction between the private and public sectors. Environmental Policy and Management (EPM) focuses on training students to address pressing 
environmental and sustainability issues. The new track will be directed by Adjunct Professor Ellen Morris, who has taught highly popular and successful energy courses at SIPA since 2004. Professor Morris will also direct the IEMP track.
“SIPA is highly fortunate that Professor Morris has agreed to undertake this critical leadership role in our teaching of energy policy and finance,” said SIPA Dean John H. Coatsworth. “I am confident she will provide students of the energy tracks with the perfect blend of academic insight and practical experience in the public, private and non-profit sectors.”
Professor Morris co-teaches with Philip LaRocco the much in-demand, two-semester sequence, “Energy Business and Economic Development” and “Workshop in Energy and Development.” She is the founder of Sustainable Energy Solutions, a consultancy providing research and policy analysis on the role of energy in international development, and a principal at Arc Finance, which facilitates financing for modern energy, water and other basic needs in developing countries. Professor Morris previously served as a senior consultant for sustainable energy programs at the United Nations Development Program and as an advisor to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Both energy tracks will continue to collaborate with the Center for Energy, Marine Transportation and Public Policy, which conducts policy analysis and applied research on energy issues and is directed by Professor Albert Bressand.
09/09/2010