Richard G. Newell

Resources for the Future (RFF)

President & Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Richard G. Newell is the President and CEO of Resources for the Future (RFF), an independent nonprofit research institution that improves environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement. He has held senior government appointments as the Administrator of the US Energy Information Administration and as the Senior Economist for energy and environment on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Dr. Newell was previously the Gendell Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics at Duke and Director of its Energy Initiative and is now adjunct professor. He has published widely on the economics of markets and policies for energy and the environment, including issues surrounding climate change policy and energy innovation. He is a board member or advisor at the National Academy of Sciences Climate Security Roundtable, the National Petroleum Council, and several other institutions and co-chaired a formative National Academies study on the social cost of greenhouse gases. Newell holds a PhD from Harvard, an MPA from Princeton, and BS and BA degrees from Rutgers.

Sessions With Richard G. Newell

Tuesday, 7 March

  • 11:55am - 12:45pm (CST) / 07/mar/2023 05:55 pm - 07/mar/2023 06:45 pm

    Energy Markets: The growing role of government
    Markets/Economics/Strategy
    Acute stress in oil and gas markets and fear of social and political impacts are causing governments to intervene. Will the G7’s price cap on Russian oil and products avert a debilitating price spike for the world economy and deny Russia resources to sustain the war? How is Europe defusing the impact of gas shortages—to secure supply and ease social distress? Are governments incentivizing or confusing investments in sustainability? What are we learning about tradeoffs and risks? What will be the role of new public/private partnerships in driving future energy investment?
  • 05:00pm - 05:30pm (CST) / 07/mar/2023 11:00 pm - 07/mar/2023 11:30 pm

    Social Cost of Carbon: A Conversation with Richard Newell
    The social cost of carbon (SCC) is defined as the cost of the damages created by one extra ton of carbon dioxide emissions. According to some, it is the single most important number that nobody has heard about. The social cost of carbon is used to help policy makers determine whether the costs and benefits of a proposed policy to curb climate change are justified. In this conversation Richard Newell will discuss how social cost of carbon is calculated, how it is used, and the difference between SCC and the carbon price companies are using to evaluate investments.