Rich Powell
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Executive Director
Biography
Rich Powell is the Executive Director at ClearPath and ClearPath Action, the DC-based organizations developing and advancing conservative policies that accelerate clean energy innovation.
He educates policymakers on investing wisely in energy innovation, removing roadblocks to building and exporting American clean energy technology, and maintaining and promoting our flexible clean energy resources. Rich also leads ClearPath’s external advocacy and research partnerships with non profits, academia, and the private sector.
Rich serves as a member of the 2019 Advisory Committee to the Export Import Bank of the United States.
Previously, Rich was with McKinsey & Company in the Energy and Sustainability practices. He focused on corporate clean energy strategy, government low carbon growth strategy, and clean tech market entry.
Education
B.A. from Harvard College in Environmental Science and Public Policy, and a J.D. from New York University.
Area of Expertise
Policy and Strategy
Featured Content from Rich
Energy sector innovation and broader efforts to address climate change should resemble the best of the tech start-ups in the U.S.: fast, disruptive, exciting and good for consumers. The Energy Sector Innovation Credit, or ESIC, would update the energy portion of the tax code by allowing cutting-edge technologies to gain commercial viability and upend the status quo without distorting the free market.
Rich Powell testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water on The Department of Energy’s Role in Addressing Climate Change.
Energy storage is a key piece to solving the clean energy puzzle. Storage technologies benefit each portion of the grid from generation to transmission over long distances to distribution to homes and businesses. Quidnet is one of the most exciting and promising companies in the grid scale energy storage space.
Geothermal is a critical, clean, renewable, dispatchable power source that deserves more attention. Geothermal harnesses the Earth’s core for heat that can be used in homes, industrial processes, or to generate electricity.
With strategies now laser-focused on affordably meeting both growing global demand for reliable and lower-carbon power, chances remain high that the new generation of miracle technologies will be created in an American national laboratory in collaboration with the U.S. private sector.
North Carolina utility, Duke Energy announced a bold plan to decrease carbon emissions 50 percent by 2030 and ultimately be net-zero by 2050. This means the company would be among the first major investor-owned U.S. utilities to set forth a plan to transition to clean energy.
