Dear Ken ,


RFF DEVELOPMENTS
December 2001 e-Newsletter
We are pleased with the positive response to RFF Developments.  We hope
this newsletter will continue to serve your needs and keep you informed of
current activities at RFF.  As mentioned in last month's inaugural
newsletter, any questions/comments you have may be sent to Karin Warner at
warner@rff.org.


In this newsletter:
1) RFF Events & Seminars
2) RFF in the News
3) RFF New Publications
4) RFF 50th Anniversary News: RFF Reunion April 18-19, 2002



1) RFF Events & Seminars
Please mark your calendars for the following:

Tuesday, December 11th (8:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.)
Addressing Distributional Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Controls
(At RFF - 1616 P St. NW Washington, DC, 1st Floor Conference Room)
This technical workshop will focus on the results of new RFF research
funded by the Energy Foundation that estimates the costs of carbon dioxide
and other greenhouse gases to U.S. households, manufacturing industries and
energy-intensive industrial sectors of various policies to reduce emissions.

For more information, please contact Susan Doyle at doyle@rff.org or
(202)328-5028.


RFF Seminars
*RFF Seminar Series*
RFF hosts regular lunchtime seminars every Wednesday. Presentations
highlight current and interesting policy topics, and research that is
in-progress.  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 underway at RFF and other
institutions.  (Attendees are welcome to bring their lunch.)
Join us on Wednesdays from 12:30 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 latest
seminar (typically posted within 24 hours). Now Available:

November 28th seminar by Roger Sedjo (Resources for the Future), "Renting
Carbon Offsets: The Question of Permanence"
(http://www.rff.org/seminar/history.htm#nov28)

Upcoming Seminars:

Wednesday, December 12th
Reforming Permitting
Terry Davies, RFF; Jay Benforado, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency;
Mary Gade, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal; and Paul Portney, RFF

Wednesday, December 19th
The Last Great Places: A Glimpse of The Nature Conservancy's Photography
Exhibition
Andy Grundberg, The Nature Conservancy

Wednesday, December 26th
No Seminar...Happy Holidays!

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2) RFF in the News
* Tom Beierle was a guest on WAMU's Public Interest with Kojo Nnamdi on
November 7, 2001.  The topic was "Restricted Access to Government
Information."
* Mike Taylor has been asked by the World Health Organization's Food Safety
Program to serve as a consultant on its annual review of the United
Nations' food standard setting body, The Codex Alimentarius Commission.
* Tom Freedman and Mike Taylor are planning a symposium in early 2002 on
the politics of the U.S. response to global hunger, which is a follow-up to
the RFF Food Security Report.  Check the January RFF Developments
newsletter for more details.
* Molly Macauley chaired a session on the role of government in space at a
symposium on space business sponsored by the Dept. of Commerce and the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce.  Her full congressional testimony from last fall was
included in the briefing book that the Dept. of Commerce put together for
the symposium.
* Carolyn Fischer gave a presentation to the Canadian Climate Secretariat,
a federal/provincial greenhouse gas emissions trading working group.
* Dick Morgenstern gave a talk on "Carbon Policies in an International
Context" to the International Petroleum Research Organization.


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3) New RFF Publications
Public Access to Environmental Information and Data Practice:
Examples from the United States, the European Union, and Central and
Eastern Europe
This reference manual provides a practical overview of how the United
States and European countries implement systems that grant the public
access to environmental information. The initial audience consists of
governments and stakeholders in Central European countries seeking to
develop their own systems (a requirement of the 1998 Aarhus Convention on
public participation in environmental decision making), but environmental
advocates in many other parts of the world will find the information
useful. The manual was developed jointly by researchers from Resources for
the Future, the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern
Europe, and the New York University School of Law, as part of a project
funded by the Global Environment Facility.
Ruth Greenspan Bell | November 2001
For more information go to:
http://www.rff.org/reports/PDF_files/FOIA_Bell.pdf


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, and concluded that the number of
trusts 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

Discusses the development of 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. Looks at the offering of 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


The Fall 2001 Resources quarterly publication is now available. To find out
more, go to: http://www.rff.org/resources_archive/2001.htm

To find out more about a member of the RFF staff go to:
http://www.rff.org/about_rff/staff_dir.htm


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4) RFF 50th Anniversary News
RFF Reunion to take place April 18-19, 2002 in conjunction with the Spring
Board & Council Meetings.

For more details, please contact Susan Johnson Doyle at doyle@rff.org,
(ph)202.328.5038, or (fax)202.939.3460


Countdown until the 50th Gala: 316 days!
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in general, please reply to Karin Warner at warner@rff.org.