Dan Esty is the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University and the author or editor of ten books including the prizewinning GREEN TO GOLD. He served as Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection from 2011-14.
Few industries in the U.S. are as stuck in the past as our utilities are. In the face of growing challenges from climate change and the need for energy security, a system and a business model that each took more than a century to evolve must now be extensively retooled in the span of a few decades. Despite the need, many of the technologies and institutions needed are still being designed or tested.