A CEO’s Farewell: Richard G. Newell Reflects on His Years Leading Resources for the Future

Outgoing president and CEO of Resources for the Future Richard G. Newell considers eight years of leadership, research, policy impact, and more.

Highlights During Richard G. Newell’s Leadership of Resources for the Future

2016

• RFF’s Strategic Review Committee completes the RFF Strategic Assessment, which evaluates RFF’s position in the contemporary landscape of environmental economics research and policy engagement. The assessment identifies strategic alternatives for increasing RFF’s impact, noting that the next president would be charged with identifying and leading critical changes within the organization.
• The RFF Board of Directors appoints Richard G. Newell as president and CEO. Previously, Newell was administrator of the US Energy Information Administration, a professor at Duke University, the founding director of the Duke University Energy Initiative and Energy Data Analytics Lab, and a senior economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
• RFF begins the VALUABLES Consortium with NASA, a collaboration created to quantify the benefits to society of using satellite data—in economic terms—to help prioritize investments and inform better environmental decisionmaking.

2017

• The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommend that the federal government update its estimate of the social cost of carbon, a measure of the cost to society of one additional ton of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. Newell is co-chair of the committee that prepares the recommendation; several other scholars affiliated with RFF also are on the committee.
• RFF publishes the Global Energy Outlook, a comparison of global energy projections from leading international organizations and corporations. The Global Energy Outlook becomes a core RFF publication that Newell and coauthors publish every year, along with a corresponding data tool.

2018

• RFF and the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) co-establish the RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment. The institute becomes a leader in environmental economics research and contributes to global climate assessments, including reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The European institute now has 53 researchers and serves as the secretariat of 5 international collaborations.
• RFF launches its new podcast, Resources Radio, with initial episodes on wildfire, agriculture, climate, measuring local air pollution from space, and the communication of complex environmental topics. Resources Radio recently produced its 280th episode and has been listened to over 524,000 times.

2019

• During Newell’s tenure, RFF expands its suite of modeling and data analytics tools. An example: RFF scholars model the projected effects of the Clean Energy Standard Act of 2019. The related publication exemplifies RFF’s growing connectivity to congressional offices and the buildup of RFF’s Federal Climate Policy Initiative.
• RFF modernizes the branding of the organization with a new logo, new design for the institutional website, and updated design for RFF’s flagship magazine, Resources.
• RFF publishes the Carbon Pricing Calculator, a data tool that lets users visualize the environmental and economic effects of proposed carbon pricing policies, which resurged during 2019. RFF scholars discuss these policies and the data tool at a related RFF Live event and on an episode of the Resources Radio podcast.

2020

• RFF launches its Business Leadership Council and President’s Council to engage industry leaders and supporters on the front lines of the economy with solutions to current and emerging environmental challenges, with the aim of strengthening RFF’s engagement and impact.
• RFF responds to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. RFF moves to a fully remote environment and then optimizes the hybrid work environment over the next two years. Under Newell’s direction, RFF navigates the pandemic and emerges as a bigger, stronger, more nimble, and financially thriving organization.
• RFF publishes Climate Insights 2020, a joint survey with Stanford University of American attitudes toward climate change and the environment, along with a data tool that lets users view how opinions have changed over time.

2021

• Newell leads efforts in modernizing the research program structure at RFF, focusing attention on sector-based programs and cross-cutting initiatives, communications, and fundraising that build RFF’s capacity around the energy transition, resilience, and solving the climate challenge.
• RFF begins implementing its vision for a diverse, equitable, and inclusive future. Under Newell’s leadership, RFF moves forward on an action plan that includes diversifying the board of directors and staff, growing RFF’s Environmental Justice Initiative and Equity in the Energy Transition Initiative, and establishing a transparent and equitable structure for employee compensation and performance management.

2022

• RFF both informs the design and responds to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act with an estimate of how the law will affect retail electricity prices in the United States, analysis of the emissions impact of key provisions for clean energy technology, and several events that convene policy experts.
• RFF, along with partner institutions, publishes an updated estimate of the social cost of carbon. Newell coauthors the related article, which is published in the top scientific journal Nature.
• RFF works with the RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment to establish the Global Climate Policy Partnership, an international network of 19 leading economic and policy research institutes. The network facilitates greater collaboration on climate policy research and policy engagement across national boundaries.
• RFF celebrates its 70th anniversary by gathering leaders in government, industry, and research for the Net-Zero Economy Summit at the Kennedy Center to discuss key topics in energy and the environment.

2023

• The US Office of Management and Budget proposes and later finalizes revisions to Circular A-4, the guidelines for how federal agencies conduct benefit-cost analysis. Newell and other RFF scholars provide research, particularly around methods for discounting, that heavily informs the revisions. Newell moderates a discussion about the revisions at an RFF Live event.
• RFF publishes analysis of significant policies that aim to address issues of climate and trade, as the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism comes into effect and interest in these policies gains steam among US policymakers.

2024

• RFF stays on top of the most important developments in energy, the environment, and climate policy, in part through an event series called Big Decisions. These annual events harness the expertise of various experts who discuss developments that they’re watching in the coming year, such as implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, the advancement of hydrogen fuel, international trade, permitting reform, and Supreme Court decisions. The Big Decisions series becomes an important public-facing series during Newell’s time at RFF.
• Newell steps down from his tenure as RFF president and CEO and will be succeeded by William (Billy) Pizer on May 1, 2024.

Richard Shares His Thoughts on Leading Resources for the Future

Resources: During your tenure at RFF, the organization saw a transition from working broadly across environmental and resource economics to a focus on climate change, the energy transition, and decarbonizing the economy. Why?

Richard G. Newell: The simple answer is that a focus on climate change, the energy transition, and decarbonization is what the country and the world needs from RFF—right now and for the foreseeable future. RFF always focused on the issues of the day since the institution was founded in 1952. Back then, critical minerals, basic resource scarcity, economic development, and national security were the priorities. RFF evolved through time to focus on water quality, clean air, energy availability and security, and market reform. Over the last couple decades, climate change increasingly has emerged as the most important environmental issue of our time, with far-reaching economic consequences. When we took stock of RFF’s ability to impact a wide range of areas relative to focusing in on a very large problem, a focus on climate change made sense for both RFF and society.

Climate change itself is a wide-ranging issue; hence, focusing on climate change includes a very broad set of challenges, from reducing emissions to building resilience. A big reason for this breadth is that traditional energy resources, which are the major cause of climate change, permeate the entire economy. The climate itself impacts all aspects of society. When one tackles the climate challenge, one is, at the same time, tackling many different challenges.

A focus on the climate issue, and a build-out of capacity to address that issue from a wide range of perspectives, has been invigorating for RFF. Great institutions and talented people are fulfilled by tackling really big problems. That’s why RFF is focusing on climate change and energy transition, in all of its complexity.

Resources: What fundamental goals and strategies have underpinned your time as president and CEO?

Richard G. Newell: From the very beginning of my time as RFF president, we’ve focused on three major strategic goals: impact, people, and capacity. Impact ensures that we deliver on our mission, which is to improve environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement. To have that impact, we need great people, and we need the institutional capacity to be successful.

Impact at RFF means generating creative yet practical ideas and policy solutions to help build a healthy environment and thriving economy. It means measuring what matters: quantifying the environmental and economic outcomes that really matter to us and helping our leaders do better in achieving those outcomes. And it means connecting people: bringing people together so they can find common ground and a shared understanding of the facts. These goals require top-quality research and outreach capabilities to ensure that we ask the right questions and deliver our insights to the right people, at the right time, in the right form.

Impact depends critically on building a culture and workplace where outstanding people can flourish. We’ve put a lot of effort into creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture, including pay transparency and other features that create the kind of workplace where extremely high-quality people want to be and thrive. We survey staff members regularly to ensure that they have what they need to be successful and are engaged in making RFF a great place to work.

The other key ingredient, and a strategic goal that’s been with us for several years now, is to increase the organization’s resources and operational capacity to innovate and grow—not because growth is good for its own sake, but because the demand is immense and increasing for RFF’s quality of research and policy engagement to help solve the climate challenge.

We’ve improved our operational efficiency and effectiveness in all of our departments. We’ve grown our annual budget. And we’ve engaged and sustained a wide variety of partners who help make our success possible.

Resources: A lot of your attention is focused on strengthening the causal connection between RFF research and policy outcomes. Can you tell us how you do that?

Richard G. Newell: From soup to nuts, RFF’s approach is to understand what the decisionmaking needs are, bring that information back to RFF, undertake the research and analysis that’s required, and then deliver our analysis back to the policy community for an informed discussion. Being deliberate and intentional about how we connect the dots from RFF research to policy impact is complex and multifaceted.

Intentionality means working on the right research questions—questions that are responsive to the needs of decisionmakers in the public and private sectors, where actions ultimately are taken to confront the climate challenge. Intentionality also is about stakeholder engagement. We put a lot of care and attention into a variety of different communication mechanisms, not just one outlet, to enable RFF’s growth as an increasingly influential organization. This diversification includes issue briefs, podcast episodes, regulatory comments, congressional briefings, and more, all built on RFF’s deep analytical expertise and decades of experience.

When we think about our mission at RFF—to improve environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions—we need to understand what it means to improve a decision. We think of improvement as advancing both a healthy environment and a thriving economy.

We see three pieces of this policy puzzle: the decision, the decisionmaker, and the decision process. Being clear about those three pieces is important to ensuring that we’re having the greatest impact. A critical feature is identifying the specific decision that we’re trying to influence and improve through our research and policy engagement. If you’re not specific about the decision that you’re trying to improve, you can get off track, and you may do research that’s not relevant. We also need to identify the decisionmakers and the decision process—whether it’s a regulatory process, legislative process, stakeholder-engagement process, business practice, or civil-society effort. Clarity about these processes is critically important, so we have the right audience and relationships in mind and get the timing right on how to influence the decision. This isn’t just about being reactive in short time windows; it’s also about anticipating where the policy discussion may be headed years down the road and building the information and analytic capacity to be ready when that policy window opens.

At RFF, we’ve deepened our relationships with government; the private sector; nonprofits; and, of course, the research and academic communities. RFF has had great connections to the technical part of the executive branch for a long time. However, RFF did not previously enjoy as deep a connection to the legislative process and with Congress. We’ve been intentional about building those connections, creating a government affairs operation that pays attention to those relationships and develops connections among RFF staff members, US senators, and congresspeople. Through these efforts, decisionmakers know more about RFF’s capabilities, and they know they can turn to us for our expertise on particular issues when they need it, in a way that is built on trust.

We’ve also created a Business Leadership Council, which plays a similar role with the business community, ranging from the manufacturing and energy industries to tech and to forestry. We keep our antennae up and our ears to the ground through these relationships. We’re able to understand where and how we can have impact—and we have the relationships to get our work into practice once our analysis is done. This kind of success doesn’t just happen; it requires a lot of care and attention.

Resources: RFF has gotten more responsive to real-time policy developments and more agile in responding to the broader context of climate policy. Have these efforts accomplished what you envisioned?

Richard G. Newell: Some great examples show how RFF’s increased agility in engaging with the policy process has borne important outcomes for decisionmakers and society.

In 2017, RFF launched the Social Cost of Carbon Initiative. The launch came at a time when the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine had released a set of recommendations for how the social cost of carbon—an estimate of the cost to society of an additional ton of carbon dioxide emissions—should be improved over time. RFF launched a multi-institution, international collaboration that brought the best and brightest minds to address the wide range of issues presented by this complex challenge. RFF was attentive to doing this research in a transparent, open-source way, to ensure that the ultimate product would be useful, usable, and used by decisionmakers in the government and more broadly.

That effort yielded very consequential results and culminated in numerous scientific publications, including an article in the top journal Nature. Most importantly, the effort has had a strong influence on the new estimates of the social cost of greenhouse gases, which have been finalized by the US Environmental Protection Agency and now are being applied in rulemakings and other policy decisions. State regulators and governments abroad also are relying on this work. I was fortunate to play a direct role in that effort, and I had the opportunity to work with a world-class team.

On the legislative front, RFF deployed its wide-ranging, high-quality modeling capability to evaluate multiple aspects of the Inflation Reduction Act. We not only informed the law’s design—which relies heavily on financial incentives and public funding—but we also have evaluated the impact of the law now that it’s passed, alongside associated regulations. We’re also currently engaged in discussions around carbon border adjustment mechanisms, policies through which countries are confronting the nexus of climate and trade issues.

One more example is RFF’s Carbon Scoring Project, which we launched last year to evaluate the impact of policy proposals and economic factors on emissions and climate change. The project is analogous to the budget scores that the Congressional Budget Office regularly produces, but our scores apply to carbon and other metrics that matter for energy and climate decisions.

We’re thinking ahead, anticipating, and building our capability so that RFF can be ready, when the policy need arises, to deliver results quickly and have maximal benefits for decisionmaking.

Resources: What strategies has RFF deployed to remain nonpartisan and independent through changing administrations and public perceptions?

Richard G. Newell: RFF has maintained a reputation for nonpartisanship and rigorous research for the past 70-plus years, even while political polarization and skepticism of institutions have increased in the United States. One of the most important things in being nonpartisan and independent—and in being perceived as nonpartisan and independent—is being clear about our values.

We value balance, which involves looking at both the environmental side and economic side of issues. We value independence, and not allowing our research to be influenced by particular interests. When funders support RFF’s work, they commit to engaging with us in a way that is consistent with our fundamental commitment to research integrity and independence. We value being rigorous and upholding the highest professional and scientific standards. We value engaging with our community—both internally and externally—in a way that is respectful and embraces diverse, equitable, and inclusive membership. Finally, and very importantly, we value results, which ultimately means delivering impact to support our mission.

Another way we maintain our reputation is through our vision for what we intend RFF to be. Our vision says that RFF is committed to being a widely trusted source of information. “Widely trusted” is a deliberate choice of words, because trust from a wider group is important—not just from one part of society, one part of the country, one particular perspective, or a single stakeholder group. Sometimes, earning that trust means being proactive with communities or groups that RFF historically has not engaged with, or for which the current politics are polarized. And we aim to engage in a way that’s attentive to how others will perceive our work, how we ask questions, and how we do our work.

Resources: One thing that may not be obvious is the substantial operational changes at RFF that occurred during your tenure. Can you speak to these challenges and improvements?

Richard G. Newell: When I first became president, I heard from staff members about the variety of “deferred maintenance” needs of the organization. I had been a member of RFF’s board prior to becoming president, so I understood certain aspects of what was needed—but engaging directly with the staff made the situation clear. We needed to modernize our operational approaches.

This may sound like an easy undertaking, but anyone at an organization that’s existed for many decades knows that modernization is not so simple. RFF’s executive team explored all facets of potential improvements and made hard decisions. We learned a lot about the institution, its history, and where it needed to go. Ultimately, the work came down to changing the culture. In essence, this culture change meant instilling a spirit of innovation and continuous improvement. I am proud to say that spirit now pervades the entire organization. Every department at RFF—finance and accounting, human resources, fundraising, communications, and research—is continually exploring ways to be better.

Another change took place through evolution. We began discussing how to become a place where every member of the staff has what they need to thrive. The solutions involve embracing curiosity and appreciating our differences. We strive to foster an inclusive environment where everyone has a voice at the table.

This inclusion became increasingly important as we faced a tremendous impact with the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, RFF went fully remote within a week. The organization worked fully remotely for two years and pivoted successfully. This shift to remote work was not easy for everyone. But we worked hard to ensure that the staff felt cared for, stable, and able to continue being productive in their work—all while being attentive to their varying personal circumstances.

Prior to returning to the office, our leadership team spent the time while we were remote developing a thoughtful and flexible work policy that kept staff safe during the transition to in-person work; we got ready for the return to the office. We put in the hard work of developing these policies and the technology to support staff so that, when coming back safely to work became possible, we could come back. And we did so earlier than many of our peers, once the conditions were safe. Now, we have an effective set of policies and infrastructure that optimizes the hybrid-work environment, and the success of our system is reflected by the satisfaction of our team of employees.

Resources: What at RFF are you most proud of?

Richard G. Newell: Ultimately, the increased value RFF is delivering to people, their communities, and society in terms of the quality of the environment we all live in and our broader economic well-being. We’ve discussed many of the specific research and policy engagement successes at RFF, which have created impact at the community, state, regional, national, and global levels.

RFF is helping society chart a course to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build a more resilient and equitable economy. I’m most proud that the institution is well-positioned to have tremendous impact looking forward. I believe that one of the most important things a leader can do is to leave an institution in a strong place, ready to bring even more benefits to society in the future. RFF is well-prepared to do that.

RFF also has an outstanding staff and board of directors, and a culture in which people from diverse backgrounds feel included and are treated equitably, supported by an outstanding executive management team and high institutional capacity. Those are all things I’m proud of.

Resources: What lessons have you learned from leading RFF that you’ll take with you? If you could do it all over again, would you do anything differently?

Richard G. Newell: One of the things I’ve increasingly found in my role at RFF and in other leadership roles is that people want to be listened to and deserve to be heard and respected. A successful leader will come to realize and appreciate this lesson. Strength comes in the ability to understand the perspectives, values, and positions of diverse stakeholders.

A second lesson is that you need to find the right balance between having a clear and well-thought-out path forward, while also being ready to pivot, adjust, and evolve as conditions change. This balance is about being both effective and flexible, which coincidentally is also the key to any successful policy solution.

I do wish that I would have said “thank you” more often. I have a tremendous amount of gratitude to everyone who has surrounded and supported RFF (and me personally) over the past eight years, and I can never thank them enough. I hope they read this and know that I am always cheering them on.

Kind Words from Colleagues

Susan F. Tierney
Senior Advisor, Analysis Group; Chair, Board of Directors, RFF

Although the quality of RFF’s research and its role in influencing policy has benefited from countless people over the organization’s decades, Richard Newell’s impact stands out among the best of the best. His affiliation with RFF has spanned many of those decades, and his most recent eight years have been enormously constructive. He led with vision, collegiality, grace, intelligence, backbone, the right amount of patience and urgency, and dedication to making RFF a stronger institution. We are so lucky to have had the benefit of his leadership.

Al McGartland
Director, National Center for Environmental Economics, US Environmental Protection Agency

Under Richard’s leadership, RFF has been a true partner in advancing quality science and economics for high-quality decisions. Richard understands the important issues that we economists and policy officials at the Environmental Protection Agency are grappling with. He moved RFF to make meaningful contributions to many of those issues, including economic guidelines for the Office of Management and Budget, the social cost of greenhouse gases, carbon border adjustment mechanisms, and discounting of benefits and costs. Along the way, RFF blog posts, issue briefs, comment letters, and public events reinforced the RFF stream of relevant research, allowing us to leverage RFF work to affect policy in weeks, rather than years.

Richard Schmalensee
Dean Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Chair Emeritus, Board of Directors, RFF

Richard has managed to make fundamental, necessary changes to RFF while energizing the research staff and significantly upgrading the rest of the organization. He played a major role as a member of the RFF Board of Directors in mapping out the fundamental changes that would be necessary to create today’s vibrant, influential RFF. From the moment he became president, Richard made it clear he understood that, in RFF’s quasi-academic culture, leadership requires engagement and persuasion, not giving orders. As president of RFF, Richard has done even more than the board had dared hope he would.

Mary Landrieu
Senior Policy Advisor, Van Ness Feldman, LLP; former US Senator, Louisiana; Member, Board of Directors, RFF

Richard has been a transformational leader for RFF as a board member, and especially as CEO. He has reorganized the organization and identified new talent that has helped shape consequential federal and state policies that are driving a new energy future for the United States and the world. RFF has always been a sought-after and respected thought leader in this field—and now more than ever. Thank you, Richard, for your guidance, advice, and friendship. Most importantly, thank you for being a passionate leader for this very worthy cause.

Richard L. Revesz*
Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs; AnBryce Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus, New York University School of Law (on leave); Director, Institute for Policy Integrity (on leave)

Richard Newell’s outsized accomplishments as RFF president are attributable to a rare combination of first-rate academic expertise and recognition, admirable leadership skills, and the ability to inspire groups of individuals to work toward a common end. I have had the privilege of following Richard’s work closely during the eight years of his presidency, both as an academic and more recently as a public official, and I am in awe of all he has done to raise RFF to new heights, producing cutting-edge work that significantly informs a broad range of critically important public policy decisions.

*The views expressed here are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, or the United States Government.

Vicky A. Bailey
Founder and Principal, Anderson Stratton Enterprises, LLC; Co-Vice Chair, Board of Directors, RFF

Richard’s tenure as president and CEO of Resources for the Future has been marked by his visionary leadership, strategic decisionmaking, and unwavering dedication to advancing balanced and evidence-based environmental policies for all stakeholders. Under his guidance, RFF has maintained and increased its visibility as a premier organization in the field of environmental economics. It has truly been my privilege to witness, as I’ve served on the board of directors, his transformative impact on RFF and the broader environmental community.

Robert N. Stavins
Professor, Harvard University; Co-Vice Chair, Board of Directors, RFF; University Fellow, RFF

Seven years ago, Richard Newell became the president and CEO of Resources for the Future, an organization which, over more than five decades, had made important contributions to environmental, resource, and energy economics scholarship and to related public policies. But Richard took RFF to a significantly new level, integrating its focused research activities with an expanded and intensified set of engagements in the policy world, with particular focus on the challenges presented by global climate change.

Daniel Raimi
Fellow, RFF; Director, RFF’s Equity in the Energy Transition Initiative

I first met Richard around 2010, when I approached him at a Duke University event with a very naive question about the oil and gas industry. Despite the inanity of my question, he answered kindly and thoughtfully, demonstrating a patience and kindness that I’ve continued to admire and sought to emulate, not only in my professional life but in my personal life, as well. Although his intelligence, energy, and attention to detail are each remarkable, it is Richard’s patience and kindness that has made him such an amazing colleague, mentor, and friend.