On April 7, the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy hosted a panel discussion entitled “Bipartisan Discussion on Energy Policy.” The event, with former Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette and former Department of Energy chief of staff Kevin Knobloch, was moderated by Tuck School of Business government and society professor Charles Wheelan, Dartmouth Conservatives member John Coleman ’26, Dartmouth Democrats member Fiona Hood ’26 and Tuck Business and Politics Club member Nolan Mayhew TU ’25.
Brouillette and Knobloch, who served under the first Trump administration and second Obama administration respectively, offered conservative and liberal perspectives on energy policy. They spoke about energy sources, the effect of artificial intelligence on energy supplies and methods of reducing carbon emissions.
Approximately 160 community members attended the panel in the Irving Atrium, while 45 people watched live online, according to Rockefeller Center assistant director for public programs Dvora Greenberg Koelling.
To begin the event, Wheelan asked Brouillette and Knobloch about the current and future landscape of energy policy. Brouilette emphasized the importance of energy in Americans’ “daily lives.”
“[Energy] makes up roughly 6% of our GDP, but importantly it’s the first 6%,” Brouillette said.
Brouillette also noted the burden that artificial intelligence servers will create for future energy supplies, adding that by 2030 the U.S. is going to be “short on electrons [by] about 28 to 30 gigawatts” even “without the AI demand.”
“We must build roughly five New York City size grids in order to meet the current demand,” he said. “When you look at what AI will add to the grid, we have to move to a different scale.”
Knobloch then turned the conversation to the different available types of energy. He noted that the energy sector “has always been in transition” between sources.
“We were starting from a standing position of zero in terms of wind and solar, and today it accounts for 17% of our energy mix not counting nuclear,” Knobloch said. “We are always going to be growing and changing and evolving our energy mix.”
Brouillette agreed, adding that the United States also has to “figure out how we mitigate carbon emissions from these sources.”
In response to a question about energy technologies emerging in the next five to 10 years, Brouillette pointed to geothermal technology and advanced reactors. Knobloch noted the emergence of nuclear fusion and green hydrogen.
Brouillette explained that 20 years ago, the United States was “hyper-dependent,” on foreign energy, importing most of what we consumed, but “we flipped that.”
Brouillette was confirmed to the Department of Energy under the Bush administration in August 2001. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, he witnessed that the administration “tiptoed” around Middle Eastern countries because the United States was not “the strong energy producer we are today.”
When he served under Trump in 2020, however, the United States had a “different negotiating power.” The administration helped negotiate with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to reduce their production by roughly 10 million barrels a day, according to Brouillette.
“Incredible energy production here in the United States allowed [Trump] to negotiate that from a position of strength,” Brouillette said.
Brouillette and Knobloch both expressed their dislike for carbon taxes, which are designed to reduce greenhouse gas levels by levying taxes on carbon emissions. Knobloch referred to carbon taxes as “not [his] favorite.”
“I am not a fan of tariffs, just like the carbon tax, it increases prices in the near term for consumers,” Brouillette added.
Attendee Matthew Timofeev ’25 expressed his optimism for the future of energy innovation.
“Whatever world we go into, chances are there will be things that we have not even reimagined today,” Timofeev said. “Ten years ago we would not have imagined that solar and wind energy would be so cheap. I wonder what is the next innovation.”
Xander Dalke ’27, however, did not agree with the panel’s focus on innovation.
“[I was] concerned by the over-emphasis on innovation … when we already have energy solutions that work for us and are economical,” Dalke said. “Their heads were in the wrong place.”
Timofeev said he attended because he is “skeptical” of the Trump administration’s approach to energy policy.
“There are so many opposing movements and ideas that they are pursuing that don’t seem very coherent,” he said.
Mayhew said in an interview that the panel provided him with a renewed perspective on President Trump’s energy policy.
“This administration has been really active with 17 executive orders in [the] energy space,” he said. “These two folks are coming in [and talking] about what has changed and hasn’t. It was fascinating to hear about the commitment to maintain some of the programs from the Knobloch team … they are working together more than we think.”
Zhimon Wang ’27, who attended the event as part of his class, said he appreciated the uniting nature of the discussion.
“It was nice to see bipartisan conversation … especially in these polarizing times,” Wang said.
Coleman also noted the importance of the event in the current political climate.
“All of these events are important because there is so much out there right now around the Trump administration,” he said in an interview. “This is a way to bring conversations to campus and to expose people on both sides to new perspectives they have not heard before.”
In an interview after the event, Wheelan expressed optimism about the “agreement” between panelists.
“[It was] interesting how much they encouraged entrepreneurs,” he said. “Fundamentally optimistic.”
