Resources for the Future Podcast

The Sloan Foundation president describes recent changes in the structure of the U.S. electricity market and discusses how its reorganization could affect utilities and consumers as well as environmental policies, especially climate change. Speaker List: Paul Joskow President, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Policymakers in the United States confront a number of important choices as they consider policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. What are the broader objectives - beyond emissions reductions - that the United States may have for domestic climate policy? Speaker List: - Billy Pizer, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future - Henry D. Jacoby, Professor of management, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, MIT Sloan School of Management - Leon Clarke, Senior Research Economist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and staff member, Joint Global Change Research Institute - Rich Richels, Senior Technical Executive for Climate Research, Electric Power Research Institute

Legislation and regulation are but the first steps in protecting natural resources and the environment, and neither ensures compliance, enforcement, nor effective results. This panel convenes scholars who have been awarded RFF's Fellowships in Environmental Regulatory Implementation. Speaker List: - Cary Coglianese, Edward B. Shils Professor of Law and professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania; and founding director, Penn Program on Regulation - Doug Eisinger, director of Transportation Policy and Planning, Sonoma Technology Incorporated; and program manager, University of California-Davis/Caltrans Air Quality Project - Sarah Stafford, Verkuil Distinguished Associate Professor of Public Policy, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary

Our panelists will evaluate some of the many recommendations in Maryland's "Strategic Energy Plan" and offer general perspectives on the advantages and disadvantages of its provisions. Speaker List: - Phil Sharp, President, Resources for the Future - Timothy J. Brennan, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future; Professor of Economics and Public Policy,University of Maryland, Baltimore County - Malcolm Woolf, Director, Maryland Energy Administration - Benjamin F. Hobbs, Professor, Department of Geography & Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University ; Member, California ISO Market Surveillance Committee - Karen Palmer, Darius Gaskins Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future

Global Adjustments, Adaptation, and Post-Kyoto Strategies: The Climate Policy Symposium brought RFF researchers to the public arena to discuss key issues affecting state, federal, and international greenhouse gad emissions decisions. Speaker List: - Phil Sharp, President, Resources for the Future - Raymond Kopp, RFF Senior Fellow and Director of the Climate and Technology Policy Program - Joe Aldy, RFF Fellow - Shalini Vajjhala, RFF Fellow

Issues and Options for Managing Costs: One of the most controversial issues in the debate over the design of a U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) trading program is how such a program will address concerns about potential costs and adverse impacts on the economy. Speaker List: - Phil Sharp, President, of Resources for the Future - Billy Pizer, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future - Brian Murray, Director for Economic Analysis, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University - Dallas Burtraw, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future - Charles Rossman, Senior Research Economist, Southern Company - Nat Keohane, Director of Economic Policy and Analysis, Environmental Defense Fund

The Potential Role of an Independent Board One of the most controversial issues in the debate over the design of a U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) trading program is how such a program will address concerns about potential costs and adverse impacts on the economy. Speaker List: - Kyle Danish, Member, Van Ness Feldman - Gilbert Metcalf, Professor of Economics, Tufts University - Brian McLean, Director of the Office of Atmospheric Programs, Environmental Protection Agency - Larry Meyer, Vice Chairman and Director, Macroeconomic Advisers

Our panelists will consider management of and responses to wildfires, from the perspectives of private landholders and federal, state, and local decisionmakers. Speaker List: - Phil Sharp, President, Resources for the Future - Roger Sedjo, Senior Fellow, RFF - Ross Gorte, Specialist in Natural Resources Policy, Congressional Research Service - Arun S. Malik, Associate Professor of Economics, George Washington University - Robert H. Nelson, Professor of Environmental Policy, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland

RFF hosts a discussion on a major report by the Mckinsey & Company, which found greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced at costs less than originally thought. Speaker List: - Phil Sharp, President, Resources for the Future - William Pizer, Senior Fellow and Research Director, Resources for the Future - Kenneth J. Ostrowski, Director, McKinsey & Company - Terry Dinan, Senior Advisor for Climate Policy, Congressional Budget Office - Richard Newell, Gendell Associate Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University

Panel One: Cost-Containment, Competitiveness, and California: The Climate Policy Symposium brought RFF researchers to the public arena to discuss key issues affecting state, federal, and international greenhouse gad emissions decisions. Speaker List: - Phil Sharp, President, Resources for the Future - Raymond Kopp, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future and Director of the Climate and Technology Policy Program - Billy Pizer, RFF Senior Fellow and Director of Research - Richard Morgenstern, RFF Senior Fellow - Dallas Burtraw, RFF Senior Fellow

Kathleen McGinty, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and former chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, discussed the ability of existing approaches- such as carbon taxes, cap and trade, and corn-based ethanol- to address climate change. Speaker List: - Phil Sharp, President, Resources for the Future - Kathleen A. McGinty, Secretary, Department of Environmental Protection

Senior Fellow Billy Pizer and Rich Richels of the Electric Power Research Institute, discuss the results and implications of a recent study by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. Speaker List: - Molly Macauley, Senior Fellow, RFF - William A. Pizer, Senior Fellow, RFF - Rich Richels, Senior Technical Executive for Climate Research, Electric Power Research Institute

Resources for the Future Senior Fellows Raymond J. Kopp and William A. Pizer discuss their policy brief, Assessing US Climate Policy Options, which was conducted with 23 business leaders throughout the year. Speaker List: - Phil Sharp, President, RFF - Raymond J. Kopp, Senior Fellow, RFF - William A. Pizer, Senior Fellow, RFF

Increasing greenhouse gas emissions have triggered a global experiment with an uncertain outcome for the future of the planet. The Kyoto Protocol serves as an initial step through 2012 to mitigate threats posed by global climate change. Speaker List: - Phil Sharp, President, RFF - Robert N. Stavins, Director, Harvard University Environmental Economics Program; co-editor - Joseph E. Aldy, Fellow, RFF; co-editor - Robert N. Stavins, Director, Harvard University Environmental Economics Program; co-editor - Todd Stern, Vice Chair, Public Policy and Strategy Practice, WilmerHale; and Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress - David W. Conover, Esq., founding principal, David Conover and Associates, and Counsel, National Commission on Energy Policy

our panalist addressed the opportunities for and challenges to designing and implementing a role for forests in addressing climate change. Speaker List: - Phil Sharp, President, RFF - Lawrence H. Linden, Advisory Director, The Goldman Sachs Group; and Chair, Board of Directors, Resources for the Future - Annie Petsonk, International Counsel, Environmental Defense - Kevin M. Conrad, Department of the Prime Minister, Special Envoy and Ambassador for Environment and Climate Change, Papua New Guinea; and Director, Coalition for Rainforest Nations - Raymond J. Kopp, Senior Fellow and Director, Climate and Technology Program, Resources for the Future - William Hohenstein, Director, Global Change Program Office, U.S. Department of Agriculture