Franz Litz

Professor Franz Litz is the Executive Director of the Pace Energy & Climate Center. Franz has advised more than 30 states and provinces in North America on climate change and energy policy matters.  His recent work has focused on the potential for greenhouse gas reductions by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the states under the Clean Air Act, as well as other federal authorities. Franz is an accomplished and sought after facilitator who has convened state and provincial officials, environmental advocates and business interests around climate and energy policy.  He has advised all three regional climate initiatives in North America, including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) and the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord. Franz remains active in bringing states and provinces together from across the US and Canada to cooperate on energy and climate change policy issues.

Before joining the Energy & Climate Center in 2011, Franz was a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute in Washington, DC. He led WRI’s state and regional climate change initiatives, as well as WRI’s engagement with the US EPA. He also previously led the climate change efforts of New York State from a post within the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, where he was instrumental in forging the 10-state RGGI program to reduce emissions from the power sector.  Prior to that, Franz was an energy and clean air lawyer for New York’s environmental agency and for the large Boston law firm Brown Rudnick.  Franz is a graduate of Boston College Law School, cum laude, and Union College, magna cum laude.