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Dear Ken :
I'm pleased to send you the inaugural issue of RFF Developments, an e-newsletter designed to keep you informed of current activities at Resources for the Future (RFF). Since we've communicated via e-mail in the past, I've taken the liberty of including you on this listserv. However, I understand how e-mail can become overwhelming -- if you'd like to be removed from the list, please let Karin Warner know simply by replying to warner@rff.org. Thanks for your continued interest in and support of RFF. I hope you'll find RFF Developments useful and choose to receive future issues. Lesli Creedon Director of Development RFF DEVELOPMENTS November 2001 e-Newsletter RFF is quickly approaching its 50th Anniversary year! The year ahead (and beyond) will be filled with much activity. Periodically, we will send you information about RFF -- including announcements of upcoming events, newly-released publications and reports, along with RFF news and updates on the 50th Anniversary Symposium and Gala -- and links to RFF web pages. Please note that this newsletter does not replace our quarterly magazine "Resources," but instead provides more frequent updates. We hope this newsletter will serve your needs and keep you informed of developments at RFF. We invite you to provide feedback as to whether the information included in the newsletter is beneficial and whether you wish to continue to receive this newsletter in the future (reply to warner@rff.org). In this newsletter: 1) RFF Events & Seminars: Seminars (Energy Consumption, Air Pollution, Carbon Offsets) 2) RFF News 3) RFF New Publications: "Fulfilling the Promise on Global Hunger" and "Improving Regulation: Cases in Environment, Health and Safety" 4) RFF 50th Anniversary News: Countdown to the Gala: 351 Days! RFF Events Please mark your calendars for the following... Tuesday, December 11th Workshop on The Distributional Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Control Policies This technical workshop will focus on the results of new RFF research that estimates the costs to U.S. households, manufacturing industries and energy-intensive industrial sectors of various policies to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. (At RFF - 1616 P St. Washington, DC, 1st Floor Conference Room) For more information please contact Susan Doyle at doyle@rff.org or (202) 328-5038. RFF Seminars *RFF Seminar Series* - You bring the lunch... RFF hosts regular lunchtime seminars every Wednesday. Presentations highlight research that is in-progress or discussions of current and interesting policy topics. They are offered as an opportunity for the public and members of the academic, environmental and business communities, government, and the news media to hear about research under way at RFF and at other institutions. Join us on Wednesdays from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Resources for the Future: 1616 P St. NW Washington, DC 20036 1st Floor Conference Room or Visit us online at www.rff.org to hear an audio recording of the seminar (posted within 24 hours). Now Available: Audio of Oct. 17 Seminar, "The Effect of Allowance Allocation on the Cost of Carbon Emission Trading" (www.rff.org/seminar/history.htm#oct17) Audio of Oct. 24 Seminar "Succeeding Kyoto: A No Cap But Trade Approach to Greenhouse Gas Control" (http://www.rff.org/seminar/history.htm#oct24) Upcoming Seminars: Wednesday, November 7th: Energy Consumption and Consumer Lifestyles Hadi Dowlatabadi, University of British Columbia; Shui Bin Carnegie Mellon University Wednesday, November 14th: Energy Technology, Indoor Air Pollution, and Respiratory Infections: Impact and Intervention Assessment in Kenya Majid Ezzati, Resources for the Future Wednesday, November 21st: No Seminar -Happy Thanksgiving! Wednesday, November 28th: Renting Carbon Offsets: The Question of Permanence Roger Sedjo, Resources for the Future ********************************************************************** 2) RFF "In the News" * RFF Fellow Tom Beierle is scheduled to appear on WAMU Radio's "Public Interest" with Kojo Nnamdi on Wednesday November 7th. Beierle, whose research focuses on public participation in decisions about the environment, will be talking about how the terrorist attacks of September 11th have derailed 'right to know' environmental protection programs on the Internet. "Public Interest" is heard in 50 NPR stations nationwide. Beierle will be part of a discussion and listener call-in to air between 1-2pm ET. * Two new fellows have joined the RFF research team: Spencer Banzhaf: Ph.D. in economics from Duke University. His areas of expertise include Air Pollution Policy, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Nonmarket Valuation, and Public Health. Michael Margolis: Ph. D. in economics from University of Wyoming. His areas of expertise include Trade and Environmental Policy, Food Systems and Security, Forests, and Resources Policy. * RFF board member Joseph E. Stiglitz shares this year's Nobel Prize for Economics for his path-breaking analysis of markets with asymmetrical information. Congratulations, Joe! * RFF Senior Fellow Molly K. Macauley was inducted into the International Academy of Astronautics on September 30, 2001. The Academy recognizes scholars from around the world who have made unique and significant contributions to space activities. Molly was recognized for her seminal research and policy analysis in the field of space economics. * William Pizer is currently serving as a senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President. Pizer, whose areas of expertise are climate and the environment, is one of nine senior staff economists. * Allen Blackman is spending the next six months on leave from RFF at the University of California, San Diego's Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies. * Carl Bauer is taking a year's leave of absence from RFF to reside in Chile and work on water policy issues in the Southern Cone. ************************************************************** 3) RFF New Publications Fulfilling the Promise on Global Hunger Religious fanaticism motivated the terror of September 11th, but poverty and hunger remain the central obstacles to future world security. Over 800 million people remain chronically malnourished. In 1996, the United States pledged with 185 other countries to halve this number by 2015. A new research report by RFF's Mike Taylor and Jody Tick documents that this commitment has not been backed by effective action. There has been no real budget commitment, no focused leadership, and no accountability for results. The report calls on President Bush to clearly define U.S. interests in and objectives for global hunger and vest responsibility and accountability for results in the Secretary of State and administrator of the Agency for International Development. Michael Taylor and Jody Tick | September 2001 For more information go to: http://www.rff.org/reports/2001.htm Improving Regulation: Cases in Environment, Health and Safety This new book from RFF Press focuses on challenges to regulatory policy during a time of rapid technological and societal change. It also examines the impact of organizational politics, science, technology, and performance on regulation. Paul S. Fischbeck and R. Scott Farrow, editors | August 2001 For more information go to: http://www.rff.org/books/index.htm Discussion Papers: "RFF and Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology Evaluating the StarLink Corn Case" StarLink - a type of bioengineered corn that produces its own pesticide and was approved only for animal feed - was found in the human food supply just over a year ago, prompting massive recalls of corn-based products. Resources for the Future, in cooperation with the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, is in the process of identifying and analyzing the regulatory and public policy issues raised by the StarLink episode. Mike Taylor and Jody Tick | October 2001 For more information go to: http://www.rff.org/disc_papers/PDF_files/0149StarLink_Final.pdf "State-Level Variation in Land-Trust Abundance: Could it Make Economic Sense?" Few economic analyses examine land trusts, their decisions, and the land-trust "industry," despite their growing importance. For example, statistics on the wide variation in the number of trusts in different regions of the United States raise questions about whether such variation makes economic sense. This paper builds a model to identify the optimal number of private conservation agents. The model depicts two competing forces: regional spatial externalities in conservation benefits that increase the efficiency of having fewer agents and organizational costs, and fund-raising specialization, which increases the efficiency of having more agents. Using state-level variables, we perform a count-data analysis of the number of trusts conserving land in each state. We find that the number of trusts actually observed is consistent with the optimal number of trusts that is predicted by the model on the basis of the relative importance of spatial externalities and organizational size in different regions. Heidi J. Albers and Amy W. Ando | October 2001 For more information go to: http://www.rff.org/disc_papers/PDF_files/0136.pdf "An Economic Assessment of Space Solar Power as a Source of Electricity for Space-Based Activities" We develop a conceptual model of the economic value of space solar power (SSP) as a source of power to in-space activities, such as spacecraft and space stations. We offer several estimates of the value based on interviews and published data, discuss technological innovations that may compete with or be complementary to SSP, and consider alternative institutional arrangements for government and the private sector to provide SSP. Molly K. Macauley and James F. Davis | October 2001 For more information go to: http://www.rff.org/disc_papers/PDF_files/0146.pdf To find out more about a member of the RFF staff go to: http://www.rff.org/about_rff/staff_dir.htm *************************************************************************** 4) RFF 50th Anniversary News Celebrate RFF's 50 years of path-breaking research... Join us for Resources for the Future's 50th Anniversary Symposium and Gala on October 15, 2002, at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, DC. For more details or ticket information, please contact Susan Johnson Doyle at doyle@rff.org (ph)202.328.5038 or (fax)202.939.3460 To learn more or register, please visit: http://www.rff.org/50thanniv/save_oct_15.htm Countdown until the 50th Gala: 344 days! *************************************************************************** If you have received the RFF Developments e-newsletter, and do not wish to continue receiving it in the future please reply to warner@rff.org. For all other inquiries regarding the RFF Developments e-newsletter or RFF in general, please reply to Karin Warner at warner@rff.org.
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