Reflections on U.S. Environmental Policy

Al McGartland, the former Director of the National Center for Environmental Economics and lead economist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will share his reflections on U.S. environmental policy in a fireside chat with Professor Joe Aldy. Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.

Registration: RSVP required. A Harvard University ID is required for in-person attendance; all are welcome to attend via Zoom.

Recording: The seminar will be recorded and available to watch on the Belfer Center's YouTube channel.

Accessibility: To request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Co-sponsors: Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability

Speaker

Al McGartland served as the Director of the National Center for Environmental Economics and the lead economist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 2005 to 2025. In this role, Al advised EPA’s senior leadership on regulatory analyses, science, economics, and environmental policy. He was responsible for insuring EPA’s analyses reflects the latest economic science and developed interdisciplinary risk assessment, benefit assessment, and environmental justice methods to be used in EPA’s regulatory analyses. Al also led the analytic efforts to support U.S. negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol and led the U.S. delegation to the OECD’s Inclusive Forum on Carbon Mitigation Approaches.  

Under Al’s leadership, EPA’s National Center for Environmental Economics issued EPA’s Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses and conducted numerous studies to assess the benefits and costs of environmental policies. Al also supported numerous interagency and White House initiatives, including projects on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases, the Frontiers of Benefit Cost Analysis, and the valuation of reduced health risks from environmental contaminants.  

Prior to EPA, Al worked at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. Al also served as the economic advisor to the Chairman at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He is a Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the advancement of the profession of environmental and resource economics. Al is also the recipient of the Society of Benefit Cost Analysis fellow and received two Presidential Rank Awards during his EPA career. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in environmental economics. Al has published in numerous journals, including Science, the American Economic Review, the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, the Canadian Journal of Economics, the Journal of Environmental Management, the medical journal, Lancet, and the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.