Resources for the Future: 2007 Annual Report

In 2007, scholars at Resources for the Future were in great demand by policymakers at the state and federal levels as they grappled with the compelling questions of climate and environmental change.

In the northeast, for example, states looked to RFF to help design auctions for emissions alllowances and federal levels as they grappled with the compelling questions of climate and emissions allowances. In California, the Market Advisory Committee relied heavily on the contributions of one of its members, an RFF senior fellow, in deciding where in the electricity market to place the burden of regulation. In Washington, several researchers testified before Congress and produced As-sessing U.S. Climate Policy Options, a report that has garnered high praise in many circles. The Environmental Protection Agency, after the Supreme Court declared it has authority to regulate CO. emissions, has turned to RFF to run a series of public workshops on key economic questions associated with emissions control.

Why is RFF able to have such impact? Because for years, it has invested in high-caliber researchers working on these issues—issues that re-agenda; because supporters of RFF have cently have jumped higher on the public faithfully provided financing for our work; research of the highest quality—independent because RFF consistently aspires to do dent of ideology, or shifting political winds, or financial pressures.

We are, of course, having impact on many policy fronts. The first report of the Extending the Cure project provided feasible solutions to the growing threat of antibiotic resistance. RFF scholars produced a major report on the national implications of Smart Growth programs encompassing land use and urban planning. And we are collaborating with researchers in developing countries who are seeking to incorporate environmental values in economically depressed and often politically unstable nations.

RFF also used its potent convening power to explore, in public exchanges, such crucial topics as global deforestation, food safety, the value of conservation, nanotechnology, and the future of coal. In a special conference focused on the Frontiers of Environmental Economics, we assembled hundreds of America's leading resource economists to explore the most exciting new ideas in the field.

Our scholars continue to do vital work in the intellectual boiler room, energizing serious thought and discourse about how to more effectively analyze problems. This work shows up in top academic journals and in workshops for the technical staff of agencies like the Office of Management and Budget, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Food and Drug Administration. While many senior policymakers may not be directly aware of this work, they clearly depend on it.

Our Board of Directors, our management team, and most importantly our scholars, are more determined than ever to maintain our commitment to high quality, independent research that can contribute in the short run or the long run to meeting the challenges our society faces.

To those of you interested in our work, and especially to those of you who make it possible, my sincerest thanks.

As Phil outlines in his letter, 2007 proved to be a pivotal year for RFF. The body of work that our researchers delivered has never been more timely or had greater impact on the crucial environmental and natural resource issues facing our nation and the planet today. I have chosen to invest a significant amount of my time volunteering with RFF and am a financial supporter, and I would like to encourage you to become more involved in supporting its work. And here is why:

I have always been an avid environmentalist. My passion is experiencing the diversity of life and reflecting upon the eons of evolution that have created the magnificent diversity of species on this planet and shaped its oceans, atmosphere, and land. To that end, I have been personally involved with several large-scale conservation efforts over the years including protection of the wildlife of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia and the Brazilian rainforests, and am supporting several more.

On-the-ground habitat and species conservation may seem far removed from the development and application of environmental economics, but, to me, they are both essential investments in the stewardship of the planet. As decision-makers determine whether to tax carbon emissions or set up a cap-and-trade program to slow the changes that mankind is making to the chemistry of the atmosphere, the planet continues to warm—threatening majestic creatures like the polar bear, interrupting rainfall patterns essential to crop production, providing advantages to invasive species over native ones, and causing the oceans to acidify, threatening marine ecosystems.

So for me, slowing greenhouse gas emissions is much more than a set of policy decisions that will have major implications for our economy. Climate change is impacting our natural world now. The policy decisions being made today will determine whether we act in time to preserve the magnificent habitats and species that are in peril, and sustain the basic geophysical balances that have evolved over time. RFF has stepped up to this challenge and is playing an instrumental role. That is why I support the organization and am proud to be affiliated with its many researchers who strive to influence the policy process.

If you want to see RFF continue its premier work, please consider giving or increasing your financial support. Whether it is energy policy, antibiotic resistance, land-use policies, or myriad other natural resource issues, decisionmakers are seeking out the unbiased analyses and policy recommendations of RFF's research staff. We believe that we have hit a new level of policy impact and have launched sev-eral initiatives to significantly build our capacity for more. With your help, we will continue to gain strength, to advocate that environmental polices be based upon sound research and analysis, and to deliver that work. I hope you will join me in helping support RFF at this most exciting time.