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Natural Gas Initiative is a cross-campus effort of the Precourt Institute for Energy.

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Michael Wara

Director, Climate and Energy Policy Program and Senior Research Scholar, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University

Michael Wara is a lawyer and scholar focused on climate, energy and wildfire policy. Wara is Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and a senior research scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, where he provides fact-based, bipartisan, technical and legal assistance to policymakers engaged in the development of novel climate and energy law and regulation. He also facilitates the connection of Stanford students and faculty with cutting edge policy debates on climate, energy and wildfire, leveraging Stanford’s analytical expertise to craft real world solutions to these challenges.

Wara was appointed in 2019 to the California Wildfire Commission which made recommendations to the state on better managing utility caused wildfires and currently serves on the California Catastrophe Response Council, the oversight board of the Wildfire Fund. Wara also serves on the Tamalpais Valley Design Review Board, an advisory body to the Marin County Planning Commission.

Prior to joining Woods, Wara was an associate professor at Stanford Law School and an associate in Holland & Knight’s government practice. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his Ph.D. in Ocean Sciences from the University of California at Santa Cruz.