Richard G. Newell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard G. Newell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 7th Administrator of the Energy Information Administration | |
| In office August 3, 2009 – July 1, 2011 | |
| President | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Guy Caruso |
| Succeeded by | Adam Sieminski |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1965 |
| Education | Rutgers University (BA) Rutgers University (BS) Princeton University (MPA) Harvard University (PhD) |
Richard G. Newell (born 1965[1]) is an American energy economist, environmental economist, and climate policy expert who served as the seventh administrator of the United States Energy Information Administration from 2009 to 2011.[2] He was also once the president and CEO of Resources for the Future, a nonprofit environmental economics research and policy institute in Washington, D.C.[3] He has previously served as Senior Economist for Energy and Environment on the President's Council of Economic Advisers and as Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics at Duke University.[4]
Newell is often cited as an authority on climate, energy, and environmental policy issues in major media outlets like the Financial Times,[5][6][7][8] The New York Times,[9][10][11] The Wall Street Journal,[12][13] The Washington Post,[14] NPR,[15] and C-SPAN.[16] He has testified on multiple occasions in the United States Senate[17][18] and House of Representatives.[19][20] He has been described by former US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu as "a leading expert on the economics of energy and environmental markets, policies, and technologies."[21]
Newell earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1997 in public policy, specializing in environmental and resource economics. Newell holds an MPA from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, as well as a BS in materials engineering and a BA in philosophy from Rutgers University.[22]
Career
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Newell was a senior associate at the global advisory and digital services provider ICF International, a teaching fellow at Harvard University, and a senior fellow at Resources for the Future.[23] During 2005–2006, Newell served as Senior Economist for Energy and Environment on the President's Council of Economic Advisers, where he worked with chairman Ben Bernanke, providing economic analysis on issues including energy market disruptions, energy innovation, automobile fuel economy, and renewable fuels.[24] Newell later joined Duke University as the Gendell Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics at the Nicholas School of the Environment. There, he taught from 2007 to 2016, and in 2011 also became a professor in the university's economics department. Newell founded and directed the Duke University Energy Initiative and directed the university's Energy Data Analytics Lab.[23]
Newell took a leave of absence from the university when he was confirmed by the Senate as the seventh administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)[25][21] after being nominated by President Barack Obama.[26] He held the position from August 3, 2009[22] to July 1, 2011.[27] In the role, he was responsible for directing responsible collection, analysis, and dissemination of unbiased energy information to promote sound policymaking by the United States government.[28] Newell left Duke University in 2016, but remained an adjunct professor at the Nicholas School.[4]
In 2016, Newell became the president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based environmental economics think tank, Resources for the Future. He previously worked as a senior fellow at the organization from 1997 to 2006 and has served on its board of directors since 2011.[24] His research work at the organization covers climate policy, energy innovation, the social cost of carbon, energy efficiency, energy markets, and global energy outlooks.[29]
