Welcome to GEOG/EME 432: Energy Policy

New to the class?

Quick Facts about GEOG/EME 432

• Instructor
  • Edwin Pinero
    Instructor
    Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering
    College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
    The Pennsylvania State University
     
• Author
  • Brandi Robinson
    Associate Teaching Professor
    Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering
    College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
    The Pennsylvania State University

About the New Instructor and a Note about Fall 2025

Geog/EME 432 is normally taught by Brandi Robinson, a well-known and highly respected instructor in the department. I am Edwin Pinero. I will be teaching 432 for at least the Fall 2025. To that end, I am essentially using Ms. Robinson's content, which is what you will see in the course material. I have made some editorial adjustments in some cases, mainly to update the content, especially regarding current events. Ms. Robinson also included personal testimony and comments, which enhanced the material. I removed some of that as it is not me speaking. Where I make a comment from my perspective, it is identified accordingly. 

My background is varied, but I am a geologist, earth scientist, and environmental scientist, by education, and spent my career in the private and public sector, working for government, companies, non-profits, technical organizations, and consulting firms, including my own. Of relevance to this class, and hence why I added my perspective in places, are the following aspects of my background: 

• I worked for an oil and gas exploration and production company
• I was the Federal Environmental Executive (now called Federal Sustainability Officer) for the US Federal Government, housed in the White House Council on Environmental Quality (2003-08). In this role, I helped develop and shepherded Executive Order 13423 on Federal Sustainability. 
• I served as the Pennsylvania State Energy Director (1999-2001)
• I chaired the International Standardization Organization Technical Committee on Energy Management System Standards (2008-2012)

Overview - This is a cross-listed course that provides students with an in-depth exploration of energy and climate policy development, implementation, and assessment at multiple governmental and corporate scales. The course utilizes contemporary real-world problems and actions to provide students context for the drivers, frameworks, and assumptions of energy and climate policy. Students will undertake a semester-long project to apply the concepts mastered in weekly lessons in a bigger picture setting. The course is structured in 3 units:

1. Foundations - examining the historical context of energy policy helps us understand its current composition and the climate implications of our future decisions
2. Immersion - understanding the intricacies of policy development, analysis, evaluation, and implementation through the lens of energy and climate 
3. Exploration - expanding our thinking to the future with a specific focus on the globally daunting task of decarbonizing the economy to avoid climate crisis

• Learning Environment - This website provides the primary weekly instructional materials for the course. The Resources menu links to important supporting materials, while the Lessons menu links to the course lessons. Canvas, Penn State's course management system, is used to support the delivery of this course as well, as it provides the primary communications, calendaring, and submission tools for the course. For the participation component in this course, we'll be using the Discussion Forums in Canvas.

Lesson Topics

Lesson	Title
Lesson 1	Energy in Transition
Lesson 2	Climate Policy is the New Energy Policy
Lesson 3	The Future is Local
Lesson 4	The Climate Citizen
Lesson 5	Policy Drivers
Lesson 6	Considerations for Effective Climate Policy
Lesson 7	Implementation and Monitoring
Lesson 8	Policy Analysis
Lesson 9	The UNFCCC Climate Negotiations Process
Lesson 10	A Post-Kyoto Alternative Idea- The Asia Pacific Partnership
Lesson 11	TBD
Lesson 12	Energy Transitions Revisited