3.30pm to 5pm, Wednesday 15th October 2025
Room 2.13, Geography Building, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9XP
In-person. All welcome. No need to register. Please circulate widely.
Speaker: Professor David B. Spence, Rex G. Baker Chair in Natural Resources Law at the University of Texas School of Law, and Professor of Business, Government & Society at UT-Austin’s McCombs School of Business
Respondent: Professor Elizabeth Bomberg, Professor of Environmental Politics, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh
Abstract: Bitter partisanship has slowed the transition to net zero carbon emissions in the United States, where the Republican Party has turned sharply against prioritizing renewable energy in policymaking. Some of the reasons for that are connected to structural features of the U.S. electoral system; but others are tied to broader techno-economic and socio-political forces that are amplifying the ideological extremes and negative partisanship, as well as distorting public understanding of the transition itself. Prof. Spence will discuss the way these forces distort energy policymaking, and what they suggest about possible ways forward.
Biography: Prof. Spence’s research and teaching focuses on economic and environmental regulation of the energy sector. He is the author of Climate of Contempt: Rescuing the Energy Transition from Voter Partisanship (Columbia Univ. Press, 2024), and co-author of energy law textbook, Energy, Economics and the Environment (Foundation Press, 6th Ed., 2023). Professor Spence earned his Ph.D. in political science from Duke University, his J.D. from the University of North Carolina, and his B.A. from Gettysburg College. He has taught at the University of Texas since 1997.