Tufts Economics Professor Picked to Lead Energy Office
By Emily Yehle, E&E reporter
A Tufts University professor will soon lead the Treasury Department's energy office, replacing Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment and Energy William Pizer.
Gilbert Metcalf will join the department on June 1, taking over an office responsible for Treasury's role in the G-20 commitment to phase out fossil energy subsidies. The office also manages environmental foreign assistance and supports the administration's domestic clean energy initiatives, among other things.
"I'm tremendously excited to be joining Treasury and working with the Environment and Energy team in International Affairs," Metcalf said in a statement today. "Billy Pizer has done a terrific job of supporting the Administration's clean energy efforts both domestically and abroad. It's a great honor to have been offered this opportunity."
Metcalf, an economics professor at Tufts, has testified before Congress in recent years on the economics of climate change and energy policy. He has also been a consultant to the Treasury Department and is vice president of academic affairs for the United States Association for Energy Economics.
In a statement today, Pizer said Metcalf -- or "Gib" -- is well-qualified for the job and will join a "talented and dedicated" staff. Pizer is headed to Duke University, where he will join the faculty of the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.
"The work of our office has been and continues to be enormously important -- ranging from the G-20 effort to phase out fossil subsidies to financing for clean energy technologies and protecting the global environment," Pizer said. "At the same time, I am excited to return to research and teaching, as well as to be closer to family. I can think of no one better than Gib to lead the office going forward."
Metcalf has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Amherst College, a master of science degree in agricultural and resource economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a doctorate in economics from Harvard University, according to a Treasury Department press release. In addition to his position at Tufts, he has taught at Princeton University, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
(See original story: http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2011/03/04/11/)