Big Energy Seminar: Stephanie Weber

Abstract:

The transportation sector is the largest contributor to US greenhouse gas emissions, and policymakers have developed a variety of tools and technologies to reduce these emissions. This talk examines the environmental and economic consequences of vehicle electrification as well as fuel efficiency standards for heavy-duty trucks. Using a range of methods, I consider how carbon pricing policy can interact in surprising ways with electric vehicle adoption. I also document patterns in observed electric vehicle purchases and what these results suggest about how tastes for electric vehicles may change going forward. Finally, I consider fuel efficiency standards for heavy-duty trucks and estimate whether truck buyers undervalue future fuel savings and the implications of this undervaluation for the societal costs and benefits of the policy.

Biography:

Stephanie is a postdoc at the Yale School of the Environment, where she completed her PhD in environmental economics in 2021. She has a BS in Earth Systems from Stanford, and before graduate school, she worked at an electricity trading firm.