REMI recently welcomed economic impact analysts and guests to our headquarters in Amherst, MA for an annual policy and training conference. Guest speakers and REMI associates presented a variety of topics related to this year’s theme, “Policy in the Trump Era: Energy, Economy, and the Environment.”
Given the considerable changes in public policy implemented by the Trump administration, energy policy and environmental regulations are particularly relevant issues. Dynamic economic modeling can play an insightful role for federal and state policy-makers, who depend on sound analysis to supplement their recommendations.
At the conference, REMI Vice President Billy Leung unveiled a new tool to inform those recommendations: E3+, a model designed to calculate the economic impacts of changes in energy and environmental policy.
A popular topic at this year’s conference was CAFÉ Standards, the regulations designed to increase the average fuel economy of cars and trucks. Several speakers, including Don Pickrell and Brianna Jean of the US DOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center and Mr. Leung of REMI, presented research on the economic impacts of changes in those standards.
Another highlight was a presentation from long-time REMI user Shah Dabirian of South Coast Air Quality Management District, discussing the macroeconomic impacts of Southern California’s ambitious emissions reduction program.
REMI hosted this conference to highlight the importance of dynamic economic analysis in evaluating changes in energy and environmental policy. The presentations demonstrated how reliable, nonpartisan analysis can improve our understanding of these issues. We want to thank all of the participants for making this year’s conference a success.
