Author

Mike has worked for 30 years designing policies and building consensus to advance clean energy technologies.
He specializes in finding innovative approaches to solving the unique problems of emerging, disruptive technologies that can transcend our current difficult political environment.
Working with U.S. industry leaders over the last 5 years, Mike launched and serves as Executive Director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition (SEMA). SEMA achieved an early policy win by developing, with allied interests in Congress, the 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit and the Domestic Content Bonus Incentive enacted into law in 2022. SEMA then continued to work to improve implementation guidance for the following 2 years and successfully defended the credit in the most recent tax bill passed in July of 2025. Under Mike’s leadership SEMA has built strong, bipartisan ties in Congress as well as the Administration, becoming a leading voice in continuing manufacturing reshoring efforts.
His federal government experience – spanning the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Senate Energy Committee, and the U.S. Department Energy – has been focused on creating policy incentives and frameworks to enable the U.S. clean energy industry to flourish and deliver its benefits both in affordable energy and quality jobs to Americans.
His most recent federal service was as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Senior Advisor to the Director of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis at the US Department of Energy from 2012 to 2015. He was a member of the leadership team advising the Secretary on clean energy policy, in addition to being a guiding force on the R&D and deployment agenda within EERE.
Prior to DOE, Mike served as Senior Counsel to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources from 2004 to June 2012. In that influential role, he conceived of, drafted, and guided through Congress a number of incentive programs and laws that now direct major Department of Energy programs. Prominent examples include the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program (used by Tesla, Ford, and Nissan to significantly expand US manufacturing of cutting-edge vehicles), and the L-Prize (which helped catalyze the commercial introduction of consumer LED light bulbs). All of these policies enjoyed broad bipartisan support.
He holds a law degree, with a Certificate of Specialization in Environmental and Natural Resources Law, from Lewis and Clark College and a Bachelor’s from the University of Colorado – Boulder.