Original:  In fiscal year 2010, RFF's operating revenue was $11.04 million, most of which came from individual and corporate contributions, foundation and government grants, and investment income.RFF 2010 Annual Report. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation comprised RFF's top five donors in 2009.Business Guide to Partnering with NGOs and the United Nations 2007/2008: A report by the UN Global Compact and Dalberg Global Development Advisors, pp. 502–505. The organization's research programs make up the bulk of its expenses, amounting to 76.8 percent in 2010. Notable RFF research Several influential scholars from RFF's early years helped shape environmental policies worldwide. John Krutilla was a central figure at RFF from 1955 to 1988. In his 1967 paper "Conservation Reconsidered," Krutilla described the economic value of undisturbed natural environments like rivers and forests. Published in the American Economic Review, the paper became "a benchmark in the economics of conservation" and provided a basis for including preservation benefits in policy analysis.Saxon, Wolfgang. "John Krutilla, 81, Economist Who Focused on Environment" (Obituary), The New York Times, July 20, 2003. Allen Kneese joined RFF in 1961, and his work on water quality management led him to argue that market-based incentives like pollution taxes, which left it up to each polluter to find the cheapest and easiest way to comply, were more efficient than conventional regulation at reducing pollution and costs to the economy, and avoided distortions in international trade.E.g. d'Arge, Ralph C., and Allen V. Kneese. "Environmental Quality and International Trade." International Organization 26, no. 2 (1972): 419–465, doi:10.1017/S0020818300003398; Kneese, Allen V., Sidney E. Rolfe, and Joseph W. Harned. Managing the environment: international economic cooperation for pollution control. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1971. Revolutionary in the 1960s, Kneese's ideas laid the groundwork for the sulfur dioxide emissions-trading program established by Congress in 1990 to curb acid rain. He left in Resources for the Future in 1974.Rauch, Jonathan. "Ideas Change the World – and One Think Tank Quietly Did", Reason Magazine, October 4, 2002. Hans Landsberg began his work at RFF in 1960, specializing in energy and mineral economics. His contributions included lead-authorship of Resources in America's Future (1963), a thousand-page volume examining the role of natural resources in the U.S. economy and projecting their long-term availability.In Appreciation: Dr. Hans Landsberg Resources, Fall 2001. Issue 145; p17. Both this and another 1963 RFF publication, Scarcity and Growth, set out the idea that growth was a bigger problem than natural resource shortages.Portney, Paul. "50th Anniversary Symposium and Gala Dinner: Welcoming Remarks", October 15, 2002. Marion Clawson, a long-time RFF scholar and a former acting president of the institution, was a pioneer in the field of resource economics who had a major influence on government policies over public lands and forest management. His 1975 book Forests for Whom and for What? examined ways to balance timber production, recreation, and ecology in the use of federal forest land. He was an early advocate of sustainability in management of natural environments and preservation of wilderness areas RFF also conducted pathbreaking research on the allocation of the electromagnetic spectrum. Harvey J. Levin's book The Invisible Resource: Use and Regulation of the Radio Spectrum(1971), advocated a market-based approach. Twenty years later, the Federal Communications Commission began licensing and auctioning these airwaves accordingly. Leadership Richard Newell joined RFF as president on September 1, 2016. He was previously the Gendell Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics at Duke University and Founding Director of its Energy Initiative and Energy Data Analytics Lab. From 2009 to 2011, he served as the administrator of the US Energy Information Administration, the agency responsible for official US government energy statistics and analysis. He also served as the senior economist for energy and environment on the President's Council of Economic Advisers and was a senior fellow, and later a board member, at RFF. Philip R. Sharp served as president from 2005 to 2016. Before joining RFF, Sharp served 10 terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana (1975 to 1995). He then joined the faculty of the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Institute of Politics at Harvard University. As of 2010, Sharp is co-chair of the Energy Board of the Keystone Center and serves on the Board of Directors of the Duke Energy Corporation and the Energy Foundation. He is also a member of the Cummins Science and Technology Advisory Council and serves on the Advisory Board of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and on the External Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative.Phil Sharp Resources for the Future. He is a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future and the U.S. Partnership for Renewable Energy Finance. He was an inaugural inductee into the Energy Efficiency Forum Hall of Fame in 2009. Paul R. Portney served as president of RFF from 1995 to 2005. Portney joined the research staff of RFF in 1972. From 1986 to 1989 he headed two of its research divisions, and in 1989 he became its vice president. In June 2005, Portney became dean of the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. One journalist assessed Portney's tenure at RFF by saying that "he never shied away from using the facts to challenge business interests that reflexively opposed all regulation, or environmental groups that never met one they didn’t like." Pearlstein, Steven. "Think Tank Leader's Principle Wisdom Will Be Missed", Washington Post, June 15, 2005. Recent and current projects In July 2011, RFF's Center for Energy Economics and Policy (CEEP) launched an initiative to identify the priority risks associated with the hydraulic fracturing of shale formations and recommend strategies for responsible development. This analysis, made possible by a $ 1.2 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will be the first independent, broad assessment of the key risks associated with the shale gas development process.
Revised:  In fiscal year 2010, RFF's operating revenue was $11.04 million, most of which came from individual and corporate contributions, foundation and government grants, and investment income.RFF 2010 Annual Report. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation comprised RFF's top five donors in 2009.Business Guide to Partnering with NGOs and the United Nations 2007/2008: A report by the UN Global Compact and Dalberg Global Development Advisors, pp. 502–505. The organization's research programs make up the bulk of its expenses, amounting to 76.8 percent in 2010. Notable RFF research Several influential scholars from RFF's early years helped shape environmental policies worldwide. John Krutilla was a central figure at RFF from 1955 to 1988. In his 1967 paper "Conservation Reconsidered," Krutilla described the economic value of undisturbed natural environments like rivers and forests. Published in the American Economic Review, the paper became "a benchmark in the economics of conservation" and provided a basis for including preservation benefits in policy analysis.Saxon, Wolfgang. "John Krutilla, 81, Economist Who Focused on Environment" (Obituary), The New York Times, July 20, 2003. Allen Kneese joined RFF in 1961, and his work on water quality management led him to argue that market-based incentives like pollution taxes, which left it up to each polluter to find the cheapest and easiest way to comply, were more efficient than conventional regulation at reducing pollution and costs to the economy, and avoided distortions in international trade.E.g. d'Arge, Ralph C., and Allen V. Kneese. "Environmental Quality and International Trade." International Organization 26, no. 2 (1972): 419–465, doi:10.1017/S0020818300003398; Kneese, Allen V., Sidney E. Rolfe, and Joseph W. Harned. Managing the environment: international economic cooperation for pollution control. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1971. Revolutionary in the 1960s, Kneese's ideas laid the groundwork for the sulfur dioxide emissions-trading program established by Congress in 1990 to curb acid rain. He left in Resources for the Future in 1974.Rauch, Jonathan. "Ideas Change the World – and One Think Tank Quietly Did", Reason Magazine, October 4, 2002. Hans Landsberg began his work at RFF in 1960, specializing in energy and mineral economics. His contributions included lead-authorship of Resources in America's Future (1963), a thousand-page volume examining the role of natural resources in the U.S. economy and projecting their long-term availability.In Appreciation: Dr. Hans Landsberg Resources, Fall 2001. Issue 145; p17. Both this and another 1963 RFF publication, Scarcity and Growth, set out the idea that growth was a bigger problem than natural resource shortages.Portney, Paul. "50th Anniversary Symposium and Gala Dinner: Welcoming Remarks", October 15, 2002. Marion Clawson, a long-time RFF scholar and a former acting president of the institution, was a pioneer in the field of resource economics who had a major influence on government policies over public lands and forest management. His 1975 book Forests for Whom and for What? examined ways to balance timber production, recreation, and ecology in the use of federal forest land. He was an early advocate of sustainability in management of natural environments and preservation of wilderness areas RFF also conducted pathbreaking research on the allocation of the electromagnetic spectrum. Harvey J. Levin's book The Invisible Resource: Use and Regulation of the Radio Spectrum (1971), advocated a market-based approach. Twenty years later, the Federal Communications Commission began licensing and auctioning these airwaves accordingly. Leadership Richard Newell joined RFF as president on September 1, 2016. He was previously the Gendell Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics at Duke University and Founding Director of its Energy Initiative and Energy Data Analytics Lab. From 2009 to 2011, he served as the administrator of the US Energy Information Administration, the agency responsible for official US government energy statistics and analysis. He also served as the senior economist for energy and environment on the President's Council of Economic Advisers and was a senior fellow, and later a board member, at RFF. Philip R. Sharp served as president from 2005 to 2016. Before joining RFF, Sharp served 10 terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana (1975 to 1995). He then joined the faculty of the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Institute of Politics at Harvard University. As of 2010, Sharp is co-chair of the Energy Board of the Keystone Center and serves on the Board of Directors of the Duke Energy Corporation and the Energy Foundation. He is also a member of the Cummins Science and Technology Advisory Council and serves on the Advisory Board of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and on the External Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative.Phil Sharp Resources for the Future. He is a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future and the U.S. Partnership for Renewable Energy Finance. He was an inaugural inductee into the Energy Efficiency Forum Hall of Fame in 2009. Paul R. Portney served as president of RFF from 1995 to 2005. Portney joined the research staff of RFF in 1972. From 1986 to 1989 he headed two of its research divisions, and in 1989 he became its vice president. In June 2005, Portney became dean of the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. One journalist assessed Portney's tenure at RFF by saying that "he never shied away from using the facts to challenge business interests that reflexively opposed all regulation, or environmental groups that never met one they didn't like".Pearlstein, Steven. "Think Tank Leader's Principle Wisdom Will Be Missed", Washington Post, June 15, 2005. Recent and current projects In July 2011, RFF's Center for Energy Economics and Policy (CEEP) launched an initiative to identify the priority risks associated with the hydraulic fracturing of shale formations and recommend strategies for responsible development. This analysis, made possible by a $ 1.2 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will be the first independent, broad assessment of the key risks associated with the shale gas development process.
Edit intent: fluency