Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Energy Science and Technology Directorate

Economic Analysis Staff

Dave Anderson

David M. Anderson

Dave Anderson began his professional career with PNNL in 1991. He has a B.S in Forest Recreation Resources (1989) and an M.S. in Forest Economics (1991) from Oregon State University. He is currently a Senior Research Economist II in the Technology Planning and Deployment Group. He returned to PNNL in 2001, after a 4-year stint with Washington Mutual Bank's headquarters in Seattle where he was the Senior Corporate Community Reinvestment Analyst.

At PNNL, Dave has contributed to varied and wide-ranging research in the areas of environmental policy analysis, energy efficiency economics, industrial economics, environmental modeling, and other socioeconomic analyses including environmental justice. Dave has managed small-to-large tasks in all of these areas over the years.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Environmental Policy Analysis
  • Energy Efficiency Economics
  • Industrial Economics
  • Socioeconomic Analysis
  • Input-Output Analysis
David Belzer

David B. Belzer

David Belzer is a staff economist at PNNL where he has been employed since 1977. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland in 1978. Based upon his academic training in macroeconomic and input-output forecasting models of the U.S. economy, he was involved in a series of studies for the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the 1980s that focused upon the defense mobilization preparedness of U.S industry. Much of his more recent work at PNNL has involved energy and economic analysis of commercial buildings. In the early 1990s, Dr. Belzer directed the development of estimates of end-use energy consumption for several national samples of commercial buildings. In addition to analysis of commercial equipment efficiency standards, Dr. Belzer is currently working on several software tools to assess the potential benefits of updated commercial building standards.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Macroeconomic Modeling
  • Input-Output Analysis
  • Economic Policy Analysis
  • Benefit-Cost Analysis
Katie Allen Cort

Katie Allen Cort

Katie Allen Cort has been at PNNL since 1998. She has a B.S. in Economics, Southern Methodist University, and an M.A. in Economics, University of Washington. Prior to working at PNNL, she worked for Seattle Public Utilities and also for the State of Washington. She also spent a year as a research associate with the Tropical Science Center of Costa Rica, working on issues related to watershed management. Katie supports a variety of projects related to the assessment of energy-efficiency programs, technologies and research. She provides technical support for the Department of Energy's Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs (BTS) Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Metrics effort, which estimates building energy benefits and corresponding pollution emissions reductions on an annual basis. She also works in the Building Energy Codes program, analyzing the economic impact of code adoption on states.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Socioeconomic Analysis
  • Life-Cycle Cost/Benefit-Cost Analysis
  • Environmental Impact Analysis
  • Environmental Justice
Jim Dooley

James J. Dooley

James J. Dooley leads the Joint Global Change Research Institute and the Global Energy Technology Strategy Project's research related to carbon capture and disposal and the role of this class of technologies in addressing climate change. He is also a senior member of the Joint Global Change Research Institute's Integrated Assessment global climate modeling team and in this capacity has principally been focused on the interplay between R&D investments, climate change related technology development and economics. He is also in charge of developing Battelle's private sector businesses relating to carbon management. Dooley is the co-developer of a state-of-the-art geographic information based model for examining the large-scale deployment of carbon management technologies in the United States.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Carbon Capture and Disposal
  • Integrated Assessment
  • Energy R&D Trends
  • Carbon Management

Jae Edmonds

Jae Edmonds, is a Senior Staff Scientist and Technical Leader of Economic Programs at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's (PNNL) Joint Global Change Research Institute, a collaboration with the University of Maryland on the College Park campus. Dr. Edmonds heads an international global change research program at PNNL with active collaborations in more than a dozen institutions and countries around the world. He is the principal investigator for the Global Energy Technology Strategy Program to Address Climate Change, an international public-private research collaboration. Dr. Edmonds is well known for his contributions to the field of the integrated assessment of climate change and the examination of interactions between energy, technology, policy and the environment. He has expounded extensively on the subject of global change including books, papers, and presentations. He has served as a Lead Author for all three major assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and numerous interim assessment reports. He has frequently testified before Congress and briefed the Executive Branch of the United States Government including the Vice President of the United States and the Cabinet of the President of the United States, and has prepared and conducted numerous briefings and lectures to a wide range of audiences. Dr. Edmonds serves on editorial boards, review panels and advisory committees.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Economics of Climate Change
  • Integrated Assessment Modeling
  • Energy Economics
  • Environmental Economics
  • Technology Impact Assessment
Douglas Elliott

Douglas B. Elliott

Douglas B. Elliott, a Research Economist, has been with PNNL since 1991. He received a BA in Economics from Whitman College and an MA in Economics from the University of Virginia, where his fields were Public Economics and Industrial Organization. Since joining the lab, Mr. Elliott has participated in a variety of projects focused mainly in the areas of energy policy, resource efficiency, cost-benefit and regulatory analysis, and software development. Currently Mr. Elliott supports the GPRA Metrics project through the development of the Visual Basic-based BESET interface and algorithms, which estimate required investment and potential energy savings associated with federal energy programs.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Life-cycle cost analysis
  • Geographic Information Systems development
  • Large-scale data analysis
  • Software development
Donna Hostick

Donna J. Hostick

Donna Hostick has been at PNNL since 1992. She has a B.A. in Economics, Pacific Lutheran University, and an M.S. in Agricultural Economics, Purdue University. Donna has focused on energy issues, with most of her experience relating to the assessment of energy-efficiency projects, technologies, and research programs. Since 1995, she has provided technical support for the U.S. DOE's Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs (BTS) Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Metrics effort, managing the effort from 1997-2002.


Areas of Expertise:

  • Life-cycle Cost Analysis
  • Benefit-Cost Analysis
  • Buildings Technology Support
  • Environmental Impact Analysis

John Jaksch

John A. Jaksch has 30 years experience working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Battelle, Pacific Northwest Division. A major portion of his career has focused on developing market and non-regulatory incentives to meet environmental objectives. Examples of the types of projects Dr. Jaksch worked on at EPA included air emissions trading, water effluent trading, wetlands mitigation banking and pesticide registration fees, among others. Since joining Battelle, Dr. Jaksch has continued his professional interests on incentives. He has provided financial and policy analysis support on two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) privatization initiatives. Dr. Jaksch has also become involved in environmental issues associated with agriculture in Washington State, especially water quality and quantity issues in the Yakima River Basin of south-central Washington.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Environmental and Resource Economics
  • Benefit/Cost Analysis
  • Policy and Regulatory Analysis
Joe Roop

Joseph M. Roop

Joe Roop has been at PNNL since 1981, and was employed at Evans Economics, Inc. (2 years), the Economic Research Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture (4 years), and University of California (2 years) prior to joining PNNL. He has a B. Sc., in Economics from Central Missouri State University and a Ph. D. in Economics from Washington State University. Dr. Roop's professional career includes a broad range of experience in the analysis and modeling of energy and policy systems, both domestic and international. Although his experience is diverse, a common theme, the economics of industrial energy use, characterizes his research and project management activities over the past two decades. While at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Dr. Roop enjoyed a two-year stint in Paris with the International Energy Agency and worked for 17 months in the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Policy.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Applied Microeconomic Modeling
  • Macroeconomic Modeling
  • Industrial Energy Use
  • Input-Output Analysis

Ronald D. Sands

Ronald D. Sands joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 1986, and his early work focused on simulating hourly and monthly electricity demand in commercial and residential buildings in the Pacific Northwest. He is currently at the Joint Global Change Research Institute in College Park, Maryland, with responsibility for development of two economic modeling systems used for analysis of climate policy. The first modeling system is the Second Generation Model, a computable-general-equilibrium model covering 14 world regions. This model is developed collaboratively with research institutes in several countries, including China, India, Brazil, Japan, and Germany. The other modeling system is PNNL's Agriculture and Land Use (AgLU) model, designed to simulate global agricultural production and land-use change over one century and the resulting carbon emissions from land-use change. Ron currently manages the economic analysis task for the U.S. Department of Energy program to enhance Carbon Sequestration in Terrestrial Ecosystems. He frequently represents PNNL in studies coordinated by the Stanford Energy Modeling Forum. He holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in Economics, also from the University of Minnesota.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Computable General Equilibrium Modeling
  • Economics of Climate Change
  • Analysis of Climate Policy
  • Energy Economics
  • International Trade
Michael Scott

Michael J. Scott

Michael Scott is a Staff Scientist in the Technology Planning and Deployment Group. He joined PNNL in 1980 with a Ph.D. degree and M.A. degree in Economics from the University of Washington, and a B.A. degree in Economics from Washington State University. He was previously on the staff of the Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska, from 1975-1979. Over the last 15 years, Mike has specialized in studying the effects of global environmental change on natural resources and the economy, particularly impacts on human systems and the effects of uncertainty. He has managed a series of projects analyzing the effects of global warming on water supply and utilization of the Columbia River system by hydropower, irrigation, and fisheries interests, the impact of climate change on human settlements, and policies for limiting greenhouse gas emissions (including carbon trading). Mike has conducted numerous regional socioeconomic impact analyses using a variety of regional models and methods (including input-output, econometric, and economic base models) to estimate the local economic and demographic effects of economic activity in a variety of sectors and locations, including Washington, Tennessee, New Mexico, Alaska, Idaho, and the Great Plains. He has examined socioeconomic consequences of startup, re-licensing, and decommissioning of nuclear power plants and nuclear waste storage systems in Washington, Maryland, South Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, Utah, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Oregon, and Tennessee; closure of aluminum mills in the Pacific Northwest, and coal mines in Appalachia, and is a resource to DOE and NRC in the area of environmental justice

Areas of Expertise:

  • Economics of Climate Change
  • Socioeconomic Impact Assessment
  • Macroeconomic Modeling
  • Benefit Cost Analysis
  • Environmental Justice
  • Environmental Economics
  • Technology Impact Assessment

Thomas J. Secrest

Thomas Secrest's responsibilities in the Advanced International Studies Unit (AISU) are to provide management and technical oversight for projects conducted within the AISU. Notable projects deal with municipal level energy assessments, the application of integrated resource planning to district heating systems, and the preparation of business and implementation plans. Mr. Secrest served as the Buildings Program Manager from 1985 to 1993, which involved oversight for 5 to 8 building energy research programs conducted for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) ranging in size from $200,000 to over $3 million. He also managed an extensive metering and analysis for the DOE's Bonneville Power Administration. Mr. Secrest has served in all phases of project activities from technical contributor, principal investigator, project manager, section manager, and program manager since joining the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 1978. He has authored and co-authored over 40 articles and technical reports. Mr. Secrest holds BA and MA degrees in Economics from Washington State University where he graduated Cum Laude and was admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa scholastic honorary society. He is currently enrolled in the environmental science program at Washington State University and will obtain an MS degree in 2005.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Energy Economics
  • Resource Economics
  • Global Climate Change
Steve Shankle

Steve A. Shankle

Steve Shankle manages the Energy Division's Technology Systems Analysis (TSA) group at PNNL. The TSA group is approximately 30 scientists, associates, and technicians, most with engineering backgrounds. The TSA group has a strong focus in energy efficiency and sustainability issues, with particular capability in buildings energy use, integrated systems analysis, and water use. In addition to his management responsiblities, Mr. Shankle has been involved in the quantitative analysis of energy issues for over 12 years. Mr. Shankle holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in Economics from the University of Washington

Areas of Expertise:

  • Integrated Assessment of Technology Systems
  • Economic, Energy, and Environmental Impact Analysis
Mike Warwick

William M. (Mike) Warwick

Mike Warwick has over 24 years of experience in energy planning, including work for the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., state governments, public and private utilities, and consulting and contract research firms. His role as a research scientist in Battelle-Northwest's Portland, Oregon office allows him to focus on strategic issues for utilities, regulators, U. S. Departments of Energy, Defense, and State, Federal Power Marketing Administrations (i.e., the Bonneville Power Administration). Prior to joining Battelle, Mr. Warwick was with ERC International where he managed the company's integrated planning and DSM program evaluation staff as well as leading their utility management audit activities. In addition, Mr. Warwick spent over 10 years on the staff at the Bonneville Power Administration and Pacific Power and Light. At these utilities he managed departments in economic and load forecasting, load research, DSM program planning and resource evaluation, and integrated resource and transmission planning. Mr. Warwick graduated with a BS in 1971 and MS in 1976 in resource economics from Oregon State University.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Energy Planning and Market Analysis
  • Energy Industry Restructuring
  • Energy Resource Performance and Program Evaluation
  • Utility Management
  • Economic Forecasting
Mark Weimar

Mark R. Weimar

Mark Weimar has a B.Sc. in Agriculture and Resource Economics, Oregon State University and a Ph. D. in Economics (Major in Agriculture) from Iowa State University. At PNNL since 1993, Mr. Weimar worked at the Economic Research Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture (7 years) prior to joining PNNL. Dr. Weimar's professional career includes a broad range of experience from agricultural policy to energy policy using the modeling of systems. While Dr. Weimar worked for USDA, he was their poultry forecaster, cross commodity forecaster and Dairy Research Section Leader. Since arriving at PNNL, his background in Finance, Marketing, Economics, Theory of the Firm and Decision-making under risk and uncertainty provided a key set of tools to analyze market incentives, assess market penetration capability, and develop excise tax revenue forecasting models. Key work while at PNNL included developing pricing and incentives for the TWRS performance-based contracting; market assessments of NASA collaboratory, Homeland Security, etc, analyze the survival of Russian nuclear electrical power generation and the Russian Grid. He also was heavily involved in developing the financing documents for the $4.0 billion financing of privatized TWRS contract.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Linear Programming
  • Econometrics
  • Financial Modeling
  • Cost-Benefit Analysis
  • Performance-Based Incentive Contracting