Miriam Horn

Work

Miriam Horn is Director of the smart grid initiative at Environmental Defense Fund, overseeing work across the energy value chain to ensure that the deployment of new electricity infrastructure maximizes environmental benefits.

She works with key stakeholders to set specific environmental performance criteria for smart grid deployment and develop regulatory reforms and new electric sector business models to transform traditionally conservative utilities into agents of change. Her team is currently helping design smart grid deployments and reform market rules in Texas, North Carolina, Illinois, California and Michigan, as well as in the nation’s wholesale markets and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

With EDF President Fred Krupp, Miriam co-authored the New York Times bestseller Earth: the Sequel, The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming (Norton, 2008). Chosen a "best book of the year" by Fast Company, the book was the basis for a Discovery Channel documentary.

She is also contributing to a forthcoming book from CRC Press: Smart Grids: Infrastructure, Technology and Solutions, edited by Stuart Borlase at GE Energy.

Background

Ms. Horn holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and studied Environmental Science at Columbia University.

Professional Activities

Ms. Horn is on the Advisory Board for Gridweek, the Galvin Electricity Initiative's Perfect Power Seal of Approval and the Coalition tasked with implementing FERC's National Action Plan for Demand Response.

She has recently presented on smart grid, cleantech and the environment at:

• Gridwise
• Gridweek
• World Economic Forum Symposium on Smart Grid Pilots
• J.P. Morgan's Public Finance Power and Gas Conference
• Columbia University’s Institute for Tech-Information (CITI) Conference on Broadband Networks and Smart Grids
• Solartech-CALSEIA Inaugural Summit
• The United Nations
• Tsinghua University, Beijing

She was a panelist with Deputy Energy Secretary Cathy Zoi at a New Enterprise Associates Forum and a finals judge for MIT's 2009 Ignite Clean Energy (ICE) Prize.