Michael Wara
Senior Research Scholar
Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Bio
Michael Wara is a lawyer and scholar focused on climate and energy policy.
Wara is Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and a senior research scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment as well as Senior Director for Policy at the Sustainability Accelerator within the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. Wara organizes and manages cross-functional teams of post docs, legal fellows and graduate students that provide fact-based, bipartisan, technical and legal assistance to policymakers, environmental justice advocates, and tribes engaged in the development of novel climate and energy law and regulation. He also facilitates the connection of Stanford faculty with cutting edge policy debates on climate, energy and climate impacts, leveraging Stanford’s energy, climate and natural resource expertise to craft real world solutions to these challenges.
Wara’s legal and policy scholarship focuses on wildfire, climate mitigation, energy innovation, and regulated industries. He collaborates with economists, engineers and scientists in research on the design and evaluation of technical and regulatory solutions to society's climate and energy challenges.
Wara has served as a Wildfire Commissioner for the California, as a member of the California Catastrophe Council, the oversight body of the California Wildfire Fund, as a consultant to the Senate pro Tem on wildfire issues, and as a consultant to CPUC and OEIS on utility wildfire risk management. Wara has served on multiple National Academy of Sciences and California Council on Science and Technology reports. He is also a member of the Tamalpais Design Review Board.
Prior to joining Woods, Wara was an associate professor at Stanford Law School and an associate in Holland & Knight’s government practice. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his Ph.D. in Ocean Sciences from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Academic Appointments
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Sr Research Scholar, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Administrative Appointments
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Senior Director for Policy, Sustainability Accelerator, Doerr School of Sustainability (2023 - Present)
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Director, Climate and Energy Policy Program, Woods Institute for the Environment (2017 - Present)
Program Affiliations
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Public Policy
2023-24 Courses
- Energy Law
LAW 2503 (Spr) - Influencing Policy
SUSTAIN 232 (Win) - Policy Practicum: Building A Sustainable, Transparent, and Humane Food System
LAW 809T (Spr) - Policy Practicum: Smoke: Wildfire Science and Policy Lab
LAW 808D (Aut) -
Independent Studies (2)
- Directed Reading in Environment and Resources
ENVRES 398 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Directed Research in Environment and Resources
ENVRES 399 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum)
- Directed Reading in Environment and Resources
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Prior Year Courses
2022-23 Courses
- Policy Practicum: Smoke
SUSTAIN 329 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Policy Practicum: Buildings in the Energy Transition: Resilient, Clean and Just
LAW 808U (Aut, Win, Spr) - Policy Practicum: Smoke: Wildfire Science and Policy Lab
LAW 808D (Aut, Win, Spr)
2021-22 Courses
- Policy Practicum: Smoke
LAW 808D (Aut, Win) - Policy Practicum: Smoke
ENVRES 229A (Aut, Win)
- Policy Practicum: Smoke