I interned at the Union of Concerned Scientists in the Climate and Energy Program. During my internship, I worked on multiple projects related to climate and energy policy. These included helping prepare for and attending congressional meetings about a recent UCS report, researching municipal policies on worker heat protections, and tracking climate and energy-related amendments to legislation. The two main projects I worked on were research on energy storage and background research to support public comment on the technology-neutral clean energy tax credit.

I conducted research on safety and equity in grid-scale energy storage systems as part of a larger UCS effort around advocating for energy storage policies. Energy storage systems are increasingly facing local resistance, particularly due to concerns around safety. I compiled information about the concerns communities have about battery storage, potential battery safety concerns and ways to mitigate them, energy storage safety standards and policies, and environmental justice considerations for energy storage into a memo, which will serve as a reference for future UCS efforts related to energy storage. I also gave a presentation internally to people who work on energy issues at UCS and wrote a blog post for the UCS blog.

I also conducted background research on lifecycle assessments to support the preparation of public comment on the IRS’s technology-neutral clean energy tax credit regulations. I compiled information about lifecycle assessment best practices and how they applied to assessing the carbon emissions of energy technologies, which helped inform the person writing public comment on this issue.

I’m grateful to have been part of the MIT Washington Program. I learned a lot about what it’s like to work in a policy environment, and different ways to make an impact in the climate and energy space.