Jacob Mays Featured on Harvard EELP's CleanLaw Podcast

The Harvard University Environmental and Energy Law Program's CleanLaw podcast hosted graduating IEMS PhD student Jacob Mays on its May 3rd episode to discuss his paper "Asymmetric Risk and Fuel Neutrality in Capacity Markets."  The paper, co-written with David Morton of Northwestern's Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences Department and Richard O'Neill of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, finds that the evolution of capacity markets–which modulate energy prices in liberalized energy markets–has led to significant differences in investment incentives across various power generation technologies.  In conversation with EELP's Ari Peskoe, Jacob discusses the forces leading to the development of capacity markets, their designed function, and their impact on the market, which favors investment in power plants with high marginal costs, such as natural gas, as opposed to those with low marginal costs but high fixed costs, such as wind power.  While he acknowledges that it is not the only factor impeding the development of a lower-carbon energy grid, Jacob argues that investment incentives may need to change in order for those shifts to take place.

The full podcast can be found on the EELP CleanLaw website, and the paper being discussed can be found in full here. Jacob Mays defended his dissertation in April, and will be graduating with his doctorate in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences in June of 2019.