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  • Conference on: California's Climate Change Policy: The Economic and Environmental Impacts of AB 32

Conference on: California's Climate Change Policy: The Economic and Environmental Impacts of AB 32

October 4, 2010
California Museum
1020 O Street, Sacramento, CA

Conference Program and Presenters: The conference brought together leading economists, analysts, and executives from academia, the state government, and industry to discuss the impacts of climate change and AB 32 on the California economy and the environment. The speakers provided comprehensive, objective, and up-to-date analyses of the likely impacts of AB 32.

Program

Welcoming Remarks: Colin Carter, Director, Giannini Foundation

Framing the Issues: Opening Panel (Moderator: Gordon Rausser, UC Berkeley)

Quantitative Analyses of the Impacts of AB 32 on California’s Economy: (Moderator: David Roland-Holst, UC Berkeley)

Luncheon Speaker: John Hewitt, Chief Counsel, CA Department of Food and Agriculture

Impacts of AB 32 on Major Industrial Sectors: (Moderator: Brian Wright, UC Berkeley)

AB 32 and the Political Economy of Climate Change Legislation: (Moderator: Dan Sperling, UC Davis and CARB)

Closing Remarks: Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee

Presenters

Colin A. Carter is professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis and director of the University of California Giannini Foundation. His research focuses on issues related to commodity markets and agricultural trade. He has published extensively on issues related to state trading in agriculture, futures markets, trade remedy law, and the economics of genetically modified crops.

John DiStasio is general manager and CEO of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). A 29-year SMUD veteran, he served previously as assistant general manager for energy delivery and customer service. He also serves on the executive board of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Sacramento Urban League, and is past president of the Northwest Public Power Association and current member of the American Public Power Association’s CEO Climate Change task force.

Meredith Fowlie is assistant professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research analyzes policy interventions designed to reduce the environmental impacts of energy production and consumption, with particular focus on understanding how market-based environmental regulations are working in practice. Her work on the electricity sector has emphasized interactions between electricity markets and emissions permit markets. She is also conducting research on climate change, addressing a host of issues pertaining to policy design and implementation.

Richard M. Frank is Executive Director of the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, where he also teaches courses in environmental law, climate change, and public interest litigation. Immediately before joining U.C. Berkeley, he served as California’s Chief Deputy Attorney General for Legal Affairs. He serves currently on the California Air Resource Board’s Economic Allocation & Advisory Committee, formed to assist the Air Resources Board in implementing AB 32.

Lawrence H. Goulder is Shuzu Nishihara Professor of environmental and resource economics at Stanford University and chair of the Department of Economics. His research examines the environmental and economic impacts of U.S. and international environmental policies, including policies designed to address climate change and pollution from industry and transportation. He serves as chair of the Economics and Allocation Advisory Committee of the California Air Resources Board’s AB32 Implementation Group.

Kenneth Green is a resident scholar and interim director of the Center for Regulatory Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. An environmental scientist by training, he has studied public policy involving risk, regulation, and the environment for more than 16 years at public policy research institutions across North America. He has served as an expert reviewer for the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and testifies frequently on environmental issues before regulatory and legislative bodies at both state and federal levels.

Mathew E. Kahn is a professor at the Institute of the Environment, the Department of Economics, and the Department of Public Policy and Luskin Scholar, University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Green Cities: Urban Growth and the Environment (Brookings Institution Press 2006) and most recently of Climatopolis: How Our Cities Will Thrive in the Hotter Future (Basic Books in 2009). He served as an independent reviewer of the California Air Resources Board’s economic analysis of the draft scoping plan for implementing AB32. His current research examines the relationship between the decreases in concern over global warming during a time of high unemployment.

John Hewitt is Chief Counsel for the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Prior to this appointment, he worked for the California FarmBureau Federation since 2001, where he served as associate counsel. Previously, Hewitt served as a land and water resource specialist for the California Regional Water Quality Control Board. He is a member of the Natomas Basin Conservancy and Federal Grain Inspection Advisory Committee. Hewitt earned a Juris Doctorate degree from McGeorge School of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural business from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Kevin Kennedy is the Assistant Executive Officer in charge of the Office of Climate Change (OCC) at the California Air Resources Board, where he has broad responsibility for overseeing the implementation of AB 32. Prior to this appointment, he was the chief of the Program Evaluation Branch in OCC, where he led the team responsible for evaluating and developing market-based compliance mechanisms, incentives, voluntary actions, offsets and other approaches for achieving emission reductions in support of AB 32. He previously worked for the California Energy Commission, and has more than 20 years experience in energy and environmental policy.

Christopher R. Knittel is associate professor of economics and Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of California, Davis. He is a research associate at the University of California Energy Institute and a faculty associate at the University of California, Davis Institute of Transportation. His current research focuses on carbon policy, biofuels, and automotive-based pollution. He is a member of the California Air Resources Board’s Economics and Allocation Advisory Committee for the AB32 Implementation Group.

W. David Montgomery is vice president of Charles River Associates, a leading global consulting firm that offers economic, financial and management expertise to firms, industries and governments. His current research focuses on the economic impacts of climate change policy. He was a principal lead author of the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. At the invitation of and in collaboration with the California Air Resource Board, he led an analysis of the California Air Resource’s Board AB32 scoping plan.

James Nachbaur is an economist in the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO). He has been involved in numerous AB 32-related analyses. These include critiques of the Air Resources Board's economic analyses supporting its AB 32 Scoping Plan, as well as analyses of AB32's job impacts, and the economic impacts of California "going it alone" on climate change policy. The LAO's analysis of Proposition 23, including its fiscal impacts, was recently completed for inclusion in the November 2010 election voter information guide.

Mark C. Newton is the director of Resources and Environmental Protection in the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO). He has been involved in the management of numerous AB 32-related analyses. These include critiques of the Air Resources Board's economic analyses supporting its AB 32 Scoping Plan, as well as analyses of AB32's job impacts, the economic impacts of California "going it alone" on climate change policy, and budget issues arising from AB 32 implementation. The LAO's analysis of Proposition 23, including its fiscal impacts, was recently completed for inclusion in the November 2010 election voter information guide.

Gordon Rausser is the Robert Gordon Sproul Distinguished Professor and former Dean of the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently editor of the Annual Review of Resource Economics, and has been elected Fellow of a number of prestigious professional and academic associations He has served as Senior Economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisors and as the Chief Economist at the Agency for International Development in Washington D.C. He is co-founder of the Law and Economics Consulting Group and is a frequent commentator on national radio and television, an active advisor on public policy issues to business and political leaders in many parts of the world.

David Roland-Holst is an adjunct professor in the Departments of Economics and Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley. He has served in academic posts in the U.S., Europe, and Asia and worked with U.S. and foreign national governments, the Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development bank, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Bank, and the United Nations. Developer of the Berkeley Energy and Resources (BEAR) model, he has written extensively on climate change and economic assessment of California’s greenhouse gas control policies and has advised the California Air Resources Board regarding implementation of the AB 32 Scoping Plan.

Daniel Sperling is professor of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science and Policy and founding Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis. He holds the "automotive engineering" seat on the California Air Resources Board, and is instrumental in designing and implementing a series of GHG policies, including California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard, carbon caps for land use and passenger travel, and zero emission vehicles. In 2008 he was appointed chair of the "Future of Mobility" Council of the Davos World Economic Forum. He is author of 12 books, including Two Billion Cars (Oxford University Press, 2009).

Robert N. Stavins is professor of government and business at Harvard University and director of the Harvard Environmental Economics program. He is editor of a number of books on environmental economics, including the recent Post-Kyoto International Climate Policy, published in 2009 by University Press. He served as independent reviewer of the California Air Resources Board’s economics analysis of the draft scoping plan for implementing AB32.

Daniel A. Sumner is the Frank H. Buck, Jr., Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis and the Director of the University of California, Agricultural Issues Center. He participates in research, teaching, and conducts public outreach on the economics of topics such as food safety and quality, farm subsidies, trade policy and environmental effects of agriculture. Prior to beginning his tenure at UC Davis, Sumner served at the President’s Council of Economic Advisors and as Assistant Secretary for Economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Sugandha D. Tuladhar is associated with Charles River Associates, a leading global consulting firm that offers economic, financial and management expertise to firms, industries and governments. His current research focuses on the economic impacts of climate change policy. He specializes in building computable general equilibrium models and was part of the team that analyzed the California Air Resource's Board AB32 scoping plan in collaboration with the California Air Resource Board.

David G. Victor is professor at the University of California, San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies and director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation. He is the author of The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Struggle to Slow Global Warming, published by Princeton University Press in 2004 and Climate Change: Debating America’s Policy Options published in 2004 by the Council on Foreign Relations. His research interests include energy and climate change policy.

Dan Walters is a columnist with the Sacramento Bee and an expert on California politics. He has been a journalist for nearly 50 years, working almost exclusively for California newspapers. At age 22, he was the nation's youngest daily newspaper editor. He has written more than 6,000 articles about California and its politics, and his column now appears in more than 50 California newspapers. He is also the founding editor of the California Political Almanac, and co-author of The Third House: Lobbyists, Money and Power in Sacramento, a book on lobbying. Walters is a frequent guest on national television news shows commenting on California politics.

Brian D. Wright is professor and chair of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the economics of conservation of genetic resources, implications of intellectual property rights for public and private research, insurance and risk management, economics of markets for storable commodities, and the price behavior of renewable and finite resources
David Zilberman is professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Berkeley and a member of the executive board of the Energy Biosciences Institute. He conducted pioneering work on payment for environmental services and adoption of technology in agriculture. His recent research focuses on how climate change policy impacts agriculture and food markets, the economics of biofuels, and the efficiency of low carbon fuel standards.