Kathleen Bell, Past-President of the Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, presenting the award to Al McGartland, Director of US EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics:
From the NAREA:
We are happy to celebrate Al's unique and meaningful public service contributions, including his efforts to (1) expand environmental economics research capacity and (2) increase the use of economic science in environmental policy making. Over the last 2 decades, Al has worked to increase the environmental economics research capacity at US EPA. His division included 4 Ph.D. economists when he arrived in 1991; it now includes 26 Ph.D. environmental economists, one of the largest concentrations of such expertise in the world. By helping support research funding and environmental economics workshops and making economics analysis guidelines accessible to diverse audiences, Al has also helped develop economics research capacity outside of US EPA. In addition to growing capacity, he has also elevated the use of economics science in decision-making. Al helped create both EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics and the Environmental Economic Advisory Committee (EEAC) of EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB).
He wrote his dissertation under Wally Oates on tradable permit systems and published this work in AER, JEEM, and Candadian Journal of Economics. Instead of choosing an academic path, he chose a path of public service. As Past-President of NAREA, I am thrilled that our public service award gives us a chance to honor economists such as Al that have made such notable contributions to our field and society.
