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The Biden administration has advanced a significant shift in U.S. climate policy that prioritizes clean energy jobs and reductions in carbon emissions as well as an effort to protect communities against inevitable climate-related events from floods to fires. Industry, too, from energy to auto, is committing to changes that cut back on emissions and spur on a cleaner economy. Cornell University experts are available to weigh in on these developments, offering perspectives on policy, economics, industry, climate science, environmental conservation and more. The following researchers are some available for comment.
Lara Skinner
Director, Worker Institute’s Labor Leading on Climate Initiative
Lara Skinner, the director of the Worker Institute’s Labor Leading on Climate Initiative at Cornell, studies clean energy transitions and their impact on labor and employment. Skinner provides training and education programs to help union leaders and members engage in the public debates on climate protection and clean energy.
Linda Shi
Urban environmental planner and assistant professor in architecture, art and planning
Linda Shi, an urban environmental planner and assistant professor of city and regional planning, researches how cities adapt to climate change and can comment on efforts within the Biden administration to prioritize climate adaptation.
Arthur Wheaton
Director of Labor Studies, ILR School
Arthur Wheaton is an expert on the automotive industry and can comment on industry developments related to Electric Vehicles and emissions. Wheaton is also director of Western NY Labor and Environmental Programs for the Worker Institute at Cornell.
Robert Howarth
David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology
Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology, studies the greenhouse gas footprint of methane extracted from shale formations such as the Marcellus shale, and the environmental impacts from the oil and gas industry. Howarth authored a study in Biogeosciences demonstrating that increased emissions from the oil and gas industry prompted a global spike in atmospheric methane.
Natalie Mahowald
Irving Porter Church Professor of Engineering, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; Reducing Climate Risk Working Group co-leader for the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Natalie Mahowald is a climate scientist, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and a lead author of a landmark United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that emphasized the need for “unprecedented” actions to control climate change and avoid a crisis by 2040.
Jefferson Tester
Professor of sustainable energy systems
Jefferson Tester is a professor of sustainable energy systems and principal scientist for Cornell's Earth Source Heat project — an effort to use Earth's internal heat to warm Cornell's Ithaca campus. Tester researches geothermal and biomass energy extraction and conversion and environmental control technologies.
Shanjun Li is an expert in environmental, energy and resource economics and policy and a professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Li is also co-director of Cornell Institute for China Economic Research (CICER).
C. Lindsay Anderson
Associate Professor in Biological and Environmental Engineering and Faculty Director for Energy with the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Lindsay Anderson, faculty director for energy with the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, and interim director for The Cornell Energy Systems Institute (CESI), studies the effective integration of wind and solar resources and the acceleration to a low carbon energy future.
Glen Dowell
Associate Professor of Management and Organizations
Glen Dowell is a corporate sustainability researcher and professor of management and organizations at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.
