Resources Radio

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Fran Moore, an associate professor at the University of California, Davis, about what it’s like to serve as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). Moore discusses the function of the CEA within the executive branch of the federal government, the range of economic expertise within the CEA, and how economists can improve the utility and relevance of their research for policymaking. References and recommendations: Frontiers of Benefit-Cost Analysis from the US Office of Management and Budget; https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-regulatory-affairs/frontiers-of-benefit-cost-analysis/ “A Progress Report on Climate-Energy-Macro Modeling,” containing a memo on tools to support the management of near-term macroeconomic and financial climate risks, from the Council of Economic Advisors; https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2023/12/22/a-progress-report-on-climate-energy-macro-modeling/ “Losing Earth: A Recent History” by Nathaniel Rich; https://www.mcdbooks.com/losing-earth/ “If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics” by Marilyn Waring; https://www.marilynwaring.com/publications/if-women-counted.asp “The Economist’s View of the World and the Quest for Well-Being” by Steven E. Rhoads; https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/economists-view-of-the-world/ABF1A4B73AA084CB909A3FF498153F16#fndtn-information

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Spencer Banzhaf, a professor at North Carolina State University, about the history of the field of environmental economics. Banzhaf discusses the development of the economic definition of value, the early influence of agricultural economists in government, the origins of Resources for the Future and its contributions to the field, and how the field of environmental economics may evolve moving forward. References and recommendations: “Pricing the Priceless: A History of Environmental Economics” by H. Spencer Banzhaf; https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/pricing-the-priceless/417AAD8A445E8B64BAD6BC201D2F2163 “Scarcity” by Fredrik Albritton Jonsson and Carl Wennerlind; https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674987081 Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._7_(Beethoven)

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Julia Haggerty, an associate professor at Montana State University and university fellow at Resources for the Future, about engaging the public in the US energy transition. Haggerty discusses public engagement in the context of US efforts to decarbonize, the opportunity presented by a transition to clean energy in terms of reducing inequities in the United States, the importance of public trust in government action, and ongoing efforts to ensure that communities take action toward decarbonization. References and recommendations: “Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions” by Stephen W. Pacala, Danielle Deane-Ryan, Alexandra Fazeli, Julia H. Haggerty, Chris T. Hendrickson, Roxanne Johnson, Timothy C. Lieuwen, Vivian E. Loftness, Carlos E. Martín, Michael A. Méndez, Clark A. Miller, Jonathan A. Patz, Keith Paustian, William Pizer, Ed Rightor, Patricia Romero-Lankao, Devashree Saha, Kelly Sims Gallagher, Susan F. Tierney, and William Walker; https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/25931/interactive/ “City Hall” film by Frederick Wiseman; https://www.pbs.org/show/city-hall/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Bernie Bastien-Olvera, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Diego, about the benefits of ecosystems for humans and the global economy. Bastien-Olvera discusses the types of benefits that ecosystems provide, methods that economists use to estimate these benefits, how climate change is shifting ecosystems and biomes geographically, and why these shifts may have a relatively larger impact on nations in the Global South. References and recommendations: “Unequal climate impacts on global values of natural capital” by B. A. Bastien-Olvera, M. N. Conte, X. Dong, T. Briceno, D. Batker, J. Emmerling, M. Tavoni, F. Granella, and F. C. Moore; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06769-z “The Biggest Little Farm” movie; https://www.biggestlittlefarmmovie.com/ “Planeteando de Pelicula” podcast; https://planeteando.org/series/planeteando-de-pelicula/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi reviews developments in energy and environmental policy in 2023 and previews potential developments in 2024 with Karen Palmer, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future, and Joseph Majkut, director of the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Palmer and Majkut discuss reforms that could speed up the construction of energy infrastructure, the increasing prevalence of trade policies that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the intersection of US goals for decarbonization and foreign policy, and notable developments in policy at the state and local levels. References and recommendations: “How to Know a Person” by David Brooks; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/652822/how-to-know-a-person-by-david-brooks/ “The Big Dig” podcast; https://www.wgbh.org/podcasts/the-big-dig

Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced $8.2 billion in funding for selected high-speed rail projects across the country. One major rail project that is receiving support will connect Las Vegas and Los Angeles; another will connect several cities in California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. “America disinvested over the last many decades in our rail systems,” said Pete Buttigieg, secretary of the US Department of Transportation. “We’re reversing that trend.” One result of this disinvestment and additional challenges in the rail industry is a large number of abandoned railroad lines. But, although many of these railroad lines no longer carry trains, the lines have been put to new transportational use. In this rebroadcasted episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Peter Harnik, cofounder of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, about grassroots and legislative efforts to repurpose abandoned railroad lines as recreational trails. Harnik discusses why the United States has so many abandoned railroad lines, the process of converting a railroad line into a trail, and the legislation that provides funding for trail projects. References and recommendations: “From Rails to Trails: The Making of America’s Active Transportation Network” by Peter Harnik; https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496222060/ Rails-to-Trails Conservancy; https://www.railstotrails.org/ “Stolen Focus” by Johann Hari; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634289/stolen-focus-by-johann-hari/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ann Wolverton, a senior research economist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, about how the agency incorporates environmental justice in its rulemaking and its analysis of agency regulations. Wolverton discusses the history of accounting for environmental justice at federal agencies, how the availability and granularity of data affect this ability to evaluate environmental justice outcomes, and how formally considering environmental justice can inform federal regulations. References and recommendations: “Environmental Justice Analysis for EPA Rulemakings: Opportunities and Challenges” by Ann Wolverton; https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/724721 “EPA Draft Revision of Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis” public comment period; https://www.epa.gov/environmental-economics/epa-draft-revision-technical-guidance-assessing-environmental-justice “Toms River” by Dan Fagin; https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/dan-fagin

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Isaac Opper, an economist at the Rand Corporation and professor at the Pardee Rand Graduate School, about how natural disasters can affect education outcomes for students and the resulting stock of skills in the US labor force. Opper discusses the relationship between education and skills in the US labor force, which is known as human capital; how natural disasters can disrupt education for students; and how school administrators and policymakers could mitigate learning losses that result from natural disasters. References and recommendations: “The effect of natural disasters on human capital in the United States” by Isaac M. Opper, R. Jisung Park, and Lucas Husted; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01610-z “The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World” by Andrea Wulf; https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780345806291

In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks about improving equity in urban park systems with Norma García-González, the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, and Catherine Nagel, the executive director of the City Parks Alliance. García-González discusses how data and community engagement have helped Los Angeles County increase the accessibility and quality of its urban park system. Nagel discusses similar efforts in other cities to create equitable urban park systems and the social, environmental, and economic value of parks in urban areas. References and recommendations: “Los Angeles Countywide Comprehensive Parks & Recreation Needs Assessment” by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation; https://lacountyparkneeds.org/final-report/ “Parks Needs Assessment Plus” by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation; https://lacountyparkneeds.org/pnaplus-report/ People, Parks, and Power: A National Initiative for Green Space, Health Equity, and Racial Justice from Prevention Institute; https://preventioninstitute.org/projects/people-parks-and-power “Park Equity, Life Expectancy, and Power Building” by Prevention Institute; https://coeh.ph.ucla.edu/park-equity-life-expectancy-and-power-building/ “The association of green space, tree canopy and parks with life expectancy in neighborhoods of Los Angeles” by Rachel Connolly, Jonah Lipsitt, Manal Aboelata, Elva Yañez, Jasneet Bains, and Michael Jerrett; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412023000582 “Sacred Nature: Restoring Our Ancient Bond with the Natural World” by Karen Armstrong; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671038/sacred-nature-by-karen-armstrong/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with David Wear, a nonresident senior fellow and director of the Land Use, Forestry, and Agriculture Program at Resources for the Future, about the ability of US forests to remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Wear discusses how US forests fit into emissions-reduction efforts, different approaches for estimating the amount of carbon dioxide that US forests can sequester, the implications of using different modeling approaches in designing policy, and the potential of afforestation and forest protection as carbon offsets. References and recommendations: “Land Use Change, No-Net-Loss Policies, and Effects on Carbon Dioxide Removals” by David N. Wear and Matthew Wibbenmeyer; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/land-use-change-no-net-loss-policies-and-effects-on-carbon-dioxide-removals/ “Managing Wildfires to Combat Climate Change” episode of Resources Radio with David Wear; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/managing-wildfires-to-combat-climate-change-with-david-wear/ “A Sand County Almanac” by Aldo Leopold; https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/aldo-leopold/sand-county-almanac/ “The American West as Living Space” by Wallace Stegner; https://press.umich.edu/Books/T/The-American-West-as-Living-Space “The Great Cash-for-Carbon Hustle” by Heidi Blake; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/23/the-great-cash-for-carbon-hustle