USAEE Case Competition

Proud of our team for placing second in this year’s United States Association for Energy Economics (USAEE) case competition. This year’s prompt meant analyzing the fairest and most feasible means of allocating carbon direct removal (CDR) efforts internationally.

I am admittedly wary of conversations that revolve around CDR, as they can divert attention from the critical emissions mitigation efforts that should come first. CDR is useful if we rely on it to reverse historical emissions; it should not be wielded to delay divestment from fossil fuels. Despite this hesitation, I did enjoy the opportunity to do a deep-dive on the ethics and geographic potential of international CDR efforts. This was a great chance for me to think deeply about fair solutions to international collaboration. And I was thrilled to be able to team up with these colleagues (fellow students) whom I so deeply respect.

Most of my portion of our prize money will go to The Conservation Fund. The Conservation Fund protects America’s natural resources to ‘promote climate resiliency’. This is one of my preferred charitable organizations; it gets an ‘A+’ rating from CharityWatch for its transparent and efficient use of donations.