2024 Shultz Energy Fellowships: California Energy Commission, Office of Commissioner Andrew McAllister
Regional-, state-, and city-level efforts are essential in our fight against climate change, especially in the field of energy. Stanford University is committed to helping by integrating its students into energy and climate ecosystems in the West through the Shultz Energy Fellowships program, an energy-related summer fellowship program for undergraduate and graduate students.
Named in honor of former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, one of the most widely admired American public servants of the past half-century, the program offers a suite of paid, energy-related public service fellowships for Stanford students in California, Colorado, Hawai'i, Nevada, and Utah during the summer.
You will be one of at least two Stanford students placed at the California Energy Commission (CEC); and will be with the office of Commissioner Andrew McAllister. The fellowship runs from Monday, June 24, 2024 to Friday, August 30, 2024.
Organization/Agency mission or role in state government
The California Energy Commission is the state’s primary energy policy and planning agency. Created by the Legislature in 1974 and located in Sacramento, the California Energy Commission has seven core responsibilities:
- Forecast future energy demand (electricity and natural gas) to assist in planning California’s energy infrastructure;
- Promote energy efficiency by developing, implementing and enforcing the state’s appliance and building energy efficiency standards, encouraging energy efficiency upgrades in existing buildings and implementing the California Clean Energy Jobs Act (Proposition 39);
- Certify and issue environmental permits for thermal power plants 50 megawatts and larger;
- Invest in energy research, development, demonstration, and technology commercialization;
- Support renewable energy development by providing incentives for solar photovoltaic systems on new residential buildings and new geothermal facilities, and implementing the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) in collaboration with the California Public Utilities Commission;
- Develop and deploy low-carbon alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technologies and infrastructure; and
- Plan for and direct state response to energy emergencies in close partnership with the California Office of Emergency Services.
Potential Projects
Commissioner J. Andrew McAllister, PhD, is the lead commissioner at the California Energy Commission over building decarbonization, load flexibility, energy efficiency, data, and also works in the areas of industrial decarbonization, hydrogen and western electric grid governance, among others. In 2024, his office will be working on several, highly technical, inter-related projects aimed at decarbonizing California’s buildings in an equitable manner and taking advantage of CEC’s unique access to energy consumption data to ensure programs are achieve maximum benefits for Californians. These include:
- Implementation of state and federal incentive programs to decarbonize California buildings.
- Taking advantage of CEC’s unique access to energy consumption data to aid in building decarbonization program development.
- Continue to forward a vision of enhanced load flexibility to aid in the decarbonization of the electric grid by designing new load flexibility standards for appliances sold in California through CEC’s Flexible Demand Appliance Standards; and ensuring a data ecosystem exists for appliances to respond to price, GHG and reliability signals through CEC’s Load Management Standards.
A summer fellow will have the opportunity to work with Commissioner McAllister and his staff to create a project that contributes meaningful to one or many of these ongoing projects.
We anticipate CEC staff will have a flexible hybrid work policy for Summer 2024. If this is the case, the fellow will have the option to work fully in-person, partially remote, or fully remote, with partial or full in-person work highly encouraged.
Potential Mentors
- Commissioner Andrew McAllister
- Bryan Early, Chief of Staff to Commissioner McAllister
- David Johnson, Advisor to Commissioner McAllister
2023 CEC Fellows
- Ethan Amaya, Office of Commissioner Patty Monahan
- Camden Burke, Office of Commissioner Noemí Gallardo
- Fiona Mooney, Office of Chair David Hochschild
- Learn more about Ethan, Camden, and Fiona's experiences:
Desired Skills
- Strong communication skills (both written and oral)
- Ability to research and synthesize information across energy-related topics
- A demonstrated desire to work in a fast paced team
- Ability to support the commissioner in his engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, tribes, and the public
- Coursework or experience in clean energy, sustainability, public policy, technical analysis, and/or physical sciences
All Shultz fellows must be enrolled in the spring quarter before their fellowship.
All Shultz fellows must take a one-unit spring workshop course, 'Energy Policy in California and the West' taught by Professor Bruce Cain and Visiting Fellow Felicia Marcus that will provide an in-depth analysis of the role of California state agencies, the Western Interstate Energy Board, and the Western Electricity Coordinating Council in driving energy policy development, technology innovation, and market structures. Course number is CEE 263G / POLISCI 73 / PUBLPOL 73 / ENERGY 73. Schedule: Wednesdays from 9:30 am - 10:20 am (Spilker 143).
Please note that this opportunity is for graduate students. Interested undergraduates can apply via SIG.