Media Advisory: New Directions for U.S. Water Policy

What: New Directions for U.S. Water Policy

When: Monday, October 20, 2014, 9:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. PT

Where: Paul Brest Hall, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California

RSVP: kanderson@brookings.edu or 202-797-6023

The Hamilton Project at Brookings and the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment will jointly host a forum to explore policy opportunities for improving water management in the United States.

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg will give welcoming remarks, followed by an overview of the event by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin. California Governor Jerry Brown has been invited to give featured remarks on the landscape of water in the West. The full agenda can be found here and is included below.

The Hamilton Project and the Stanford Woods Institute will release three new papers as part of the forum, including two proposals for improving water management in the United States and a set of economic facts about America’s relationship to water. The first panel will focus on a new proposal to improve and expand water markets, and the second panel will focus on a new proposal to promote investment and innovation in the water sector. Investor, Philanthropist and Advanced Energy Advocate Thomas F. Steyer will lead a third panel on the impact of climate change on water resources.

Please let us know if you plan to attend and we’ll reserve a seat for you. Follow the conversation @hamiltonproj #H2OPolicy.

Agenda:

9:00 – 9:10 A.M. WELCOME - Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook

9:10 – 9:20 A.M. INTRODUCTION AND ROADMAP OF EVENT - Robert E. Rubin, Co-Chair, Council on Foreign Relations; Former U.S. Treasury Secretary

9:20 – 9:50 A.M. THE LANDSCAPE OF WATER IN THE WEST – Governor Jerry Brown, State of California (invited)

9:50 – 10:55 A.M. ROUNDTABLE: SHOPPING FOR WATER: HOW THE MARKET CAN MITIGATE WATER SHORTAGES IN THE AMERICAN WEST

• Author: Robert Glennon, Regents' Professor, Morris K. Udall Professor of Law & Public Policy, James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona
• Discussant: Ellen Hanak, Senior Fellow, Public Policy Institute of California
• Discussant: Thomas Iseman, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Water and Science, U.S. Department of the Interior
• Discussant: James Lochhead, Chief Executive Officer and Manager, Denver Water
• Discussant: William Phillimore, Executive Vice President, Paramount Farming Company
• Moderator: Melissa Kearney, Director, The Hamilton Project

10:55 – 11:10 A.M. BREAK

11:10 - 12:15 P.M. ROUNDTABLE: THE PATH TO WATER INNOVATION

• Author: Barton “Buzz” Thompson, Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law and Perry L. McCarty Director, The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
• Discussant: Ira Ehrenpreis, General Partner, Technology Partners
• Discussant: Michael Markus, General Manager, Orange County Water District
• Discussant: Peter Yolles, Founder and Chief Policy Officer, Water Smart Software
• Moderator: Roger Altman, Founder and Chairman, Evercore

12:15 – 1:20 P.M. MODERATED DISCUSSION: THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON AMERICA’S WATER RESOURCES

• Wade Crowfoot, Deputy Cabinet Secretary and Senior Advisor, Office of California Governor Jerry Brown
• Noah Diffenbaugh, Associate Professor of Environmental Earth System Science and Senior Fellow, The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
• Peter Gleick, President and Co-founder, The Pacific Institute
• Solomon Hsiang, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, The Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
• Facilitator: Thomas F. Steyer, Investor, Philanthropist and Advanced Energy Advocate

1:20 P.M. CLOSING REMARKS AND ADJOURNMENT - Steve Denning, Chairman, General Atlantic; Chairman of the Board, Stanford University