The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) is the repository for the reference case analysis for US energy usage and projections. Sometimes constrained politically and bureaucratically, their analyses have often seem highly fossil-fuel friendly and undervaluing of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Considering that record, last week’s announcement of the Obama Administration nominee to be the next Administrator of the EIA suggests that this pattern is about to be broken.
Richard Newell
is the Gendell Associate Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. He has published widely on the role of energy markets, economic incentives and other energy policy options, particularly those intended to spur the development of alternative energy sources and technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve efficiency.
Prior to joining the Duke faculty in 2007, Newell was senior economist for energy and environment on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and a senior fellow at Resources for the Future,
Joining a mounting tradition of Obama appointees who actually have substantive knowledge in the arenas where they have responsibilities, check out the publications list of this several year old resume: about four page list, with most relevant for his new responsibilities and for bringing understanding to the opportunities and challenges before us, such as:
- Uncertain Discount Rates in Climate Policy Analysis. Energy Policy 32(4):519-529. With William A. Pizer. 2003
- The Economics of Energy Efficiency. Forthcoming in the Encyclopedia of Energy, Cutler
Cleveland, ed, Elsevier. With Adam B. Jaffe and Robert N. Stavins. 2003 - Managing Permit Markets to Stabilize Prices, Workshop on Instrument Design and Choice in Environmental Regulation, Helsinki School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland, October 2002.
- Energy Efficiency and Climate Policy: Issues and Evidence, Americans for Equitable Climate Solutions, Washington, DC, May 2002.
See here for 73 Richard Newell publications at RFF including the co-authored April 2009 Energy Efficiency Economics and Policy and the May 2009 Designing Cliamte Mitigation Policy.