University of California, Berkeley
To create the E2e Evidence-Based Policy Fellowship program that will bring energy efficiency program evaluation research capacity to state agencies
The E2e network is a consortium of scholars evaluating the impact of energy efficiency programs using randomized controlled trials and high-quality quasi-experimental research. Under the leadership of Catherine Wolfram (University of California, Berkeley), Michael Greenstone (University of Chicago), and Christopher Knittel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the network has grown since its 2012 launch to include nearly 30 affiliated faculty and has produced close to 40 papers on the cost-benefit impacts of energy efficiency programs. Practitioners in state governments have started to take notice and there is a growing desire to infuse government evaluations of energy efficiency programs with the rigor that E2e researchers bring to their academic studies. This grant provides funds to place at least two “E2e Evidence-Based Policy Fellows” within select state energy agencies to serve as a resource to agency staff, to improve plans for evaluating energy efficiency programs, and to advise agency policymakers on the initial design and implementation of such programs. Fellows will be supervised on a daily level by an agency supervisor and will hold regular check-ins with the E2e faculty leads.