[E&E seminars] 6/14/07 How Environmental Protection Policies Promote Economic Growth, Competition, & Innovation

[Karen Gibson]

How Environmental Protection Policies
Promote Economic Growth, Competition, and Innovation

David B. Goldstein
Energy Program Director
Natural Resources Defense Council

Thursday, June 14, 2007
3:30 - 5:00 pm
E51-145

Abstract
In his talk, David Goldstein examines the scientific evidence that is  
available, supplemented with experiential evidence and personal  
experience, on how environmental protection policy in general, and  
greenhouse gas emissions limits in particular, can enhance economic  
growth.

There are widespread opportunities throughout the economy to reduce  
pollution and preserve ecosystems in ways that increase profit. But  
because of formidable and nearly universal failures of the  
marketplace, and simple human tendencies towards risk aversion and  
loss aversion, most of these opportunities are not exploited.  
Pollution reduction opportunities with rates of return on investment  
of 30%, 50%, and even over 100% are going unexploited.

Government policies have a demonstrated track record of having  
overcome these failures.

The failure of current markets to take advantages of opportunities to  
reduce emissions with very high return on investment creates an even  
more powerful barrier to innovation indirectly than it does directly:  
If existing products or services that could generate a 30% annual  
return by saving energy don’t sell, why would anyone develop an even  
better technology?


Biographical sketch
David B. Goldstein has worked on energy efficiency and energy policy  
since the early 1970s.  He currently co-directs NRDC's Energy  
Program. Dr. Goldstein has been instrumental in the development of  
energy efficiency standards for new buildings and appliances that are  
currently in effect at the regional and national level in the United  
States, Russia, Kazakhstan, and China. He negotiated the agreement  
that led to the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987,  
and has helped design energy efficiency programs with utilities and  
state regulatory agencies. He initiated and coordinated the dialogue  
that led to the adoption of tax incentives for efficient buildings in  
the U.S. in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and was a founding director  
of the Consortium for Energy Efficiency and the New Buildings  
Institute. Dr. Goldstein initiated and directed research on how urban  
structure affects the usage of automobiles, and originated the  
Location Efficient Mortgage to implement the results. David B.  
Goldstein received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of  
California at Berkeley, and is a Fellow of the American Physical  
Society and the recipient of its Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the  
Public Interest. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002 and is  
the recipient of the California Alumni Association’s 2003 Award for  
Excellence in Achievement.


Co-sponsored by the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment and the  
MIT Energy Club


Karen  L. Gibson
MIT Laboratory For Energy and the Environment
77 Massachusetts Avenue, E40-469
Cambridge, MA 02139  USA
(1 Amherst St., E40-469, Cambridge MA 02142 - for DHL and FedEx)
Tel:  +1 617 258-6368; Fax:  +1 617 258-6590


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