Chris MacCracken

Chris assists state agencies, utilities, industry associations, and nonprofit policy organizations in understanding the impacts of energy and environmental regulation on electricity markets with over 25 years of experience. He helps energy companies develop robust long-term plans and policies that cost-effectively achieve their goals.

In his role, Chris advises clients on a range of environmental policy proposals and laws spanning multiple pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and mercury, and particularly carbon dioxide. Some of those policies focus on command-and-control measures, but Chris specializes in using market tools and allowance trading to achieve pollution reduction goals.

Chris supports member states of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and states considering participation in the program, analyzing the program’s impacts on electricity markets and emissions, and evaluating next steps. He performs similar work for other states and companies, assessing allowance trading as a mechanism to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. He also reviews California’s cap-and-trade program, state-level policies under the Clean Power Plan, and other state efforts in New York, North Carolina, and elsewhere.

As states look beyond the power sector to broader economy-wide greenhouse gas emission reductions, Chris is assessing the power industry’s role in reducing direct emissions and supplying non-emitting alternative fuels to other sectors. His work supports policy development at the state-level and long-term planning for utilities with assets impacted by such policies.

Chris started his career in the Global Climate Change group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, advising federal agencies and energy companies on the impacts of climate change policy on international energy markets and on the role of advanced technologies in mitigating climate change.

Chris holds a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Chris is also a senior fellow with the ICF Climate Center. In this role, he provides compelling research and objective perspectives on a wide range of climate-related topics to help advance climate conversations and accelerate climate action.