Environmental Defense Fund Welcomes New Clean Energy Idea Bank Senior Director

(NEW YORK – May 11, 2015) Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today announced the hire of Jonathan Schrag as Senior Director, Clean Energy Idea Bank.

Schrag joins EDF from New York University School of Law, where he served as a Senior Fellow in Energy at the Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law from 2013 to 2015. At NYU, Jonathan’s work focused on regulatory and financial innovation related to distributed energy resources and the decentralization of electrical infrastructure. 

Schrag has distinguished himself in the clean energy sector.  Before joining NYU, Jonathan served as the Deputy Commissioner for Energy within the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the first Executive Director of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and the Executive Director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia University.

Jonathan has served as a member of the U.S. Commodities and Futures Trading Commission Advisory Panel on Energy and Environmental Markets, an executive board member of the Northeast Combined Heat and Power Initiative, an advisor to the Western Governors’ Association Zero-Emission Energy Task Force, a member of the Regional Plan Association’s Energy Working Group, and vice president of the New York Association for Energy Economics.

In his new role at EDF, Schrag will apply his many years of experience in state energy policy to directing EDF’s Clean Energy Idea Bank, an internal think tank, analytics team, and strategic planning hub. In an era of powerful new information and communication technologies, the EDF Clean Energy Program is helping transform our country’s electricity system in order to grow our economy, slash harmful pollution, and give people control over their energy use and costs. Our clean energy experts are working with regulators, policymakers, clean tech entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders in key states to hasten the clean energy economy by modernizing utility business models, making the grid more resilient and less wasteful, leveling the playing field for clean energy, and unleashing the power of private capital.