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The Center on Global Energy Policy is committed to independent and nonpartisan research that meets the high standards of academic integrity and quality at Columbia University.
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We advance smart, actionable, and evidence-based energy and climate solutions through research, education, and dialogue.
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Meet our staff and senior energy experts from government, academia, industry, and nongovernmental organizations.
Director, Non-Technical Barriers to the Clean Energy Transition
Abraham Silverman joined the Center as the Director of the Non-Technical Barriers to the Clean Energy Transition initiative. The Non-Technical Barriers initiative is designed to identify major legal and regulatory bottlenecks to the clean energy transition and then provide state and federal policy makers pragmatic solutions to address those challenges. Major focus areas include Legal and Regulatory Barriers at the state and federal level, Market Rules and Economic Incentives, and Social Acceptance & Just Deployment of Infrastructure.
Before joining the Center, Abe served at the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities as the General Counsel and Executive Policy Counsel. Abe’s portfolio included developing offshore wind, solar, electric vehicle, energy storage, and interconnection reform programs, along with quantifying and managing ratepayer impacts of the clean energy transition. Abe also led the State’s engagement with PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator for New Jersey, on topics such as implementing New Jersey’s first-in-the-nation offshore wind transmission solicitation, resource adequacy, clean energy market design, and transmission policy.
Previously, Abe spent more than a decade at NRG Energy, Inc., as the Deputy Generator Counsel & Vice President of Regulatory Affairs. Abe supported NRG’s power markets team, power plant operations group, renewable development and state retail electricity market programs. Abe also led the company’s advocacy at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as well as anti-trust compliance work at the Department of Justice/Federal Trade Commission. Abe has also worked as an associate at Perkins Coie LLP and as a staff attorney at FERC. Abe has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Maryland and a JD from the George Washington University Law School.
Abe has testified before the United States Senate’s Energy & Commerce Committee, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the New Jersey Senate, and is the author of numerous pleadings at the state and federal level, including before the U.S. Supreme Court and various U.S. Courts of Appeals.
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