MICHAEL GREENSTONE

Director of the Becker Friedman Institute

Director of the Energy Policy Institute (EPIC)

Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at University of Chicago

Contributor, NYTimes

MichaelGreenstone_still.jpg
 
 

Michael’s New York Times articles made me obsessed with meeting him. He focuses on economics and policy and helps us see the connection.  He explains how policy is the key to reaching our goals. And what drives policy? Public pressure.

“A common thread in the places where there have been improvements in environmental quality is they don't happen by people wishing for it or sitting around. It happens when there's forceful policy, and that forceful policy is almost always driven by people demanding it.”

He tells us that carbon dioxide has been getting a free ride even though it has cost our society so much. His focus is not on a particular industry or a particular solution. It is on calling out the problem: carbon. He explains this without getting political or placing blame on any specific players. Carbon is the enemy, and our efforts should be focused on getting rid of it.

Michael is a fan of graphs. These indisputable representations of data illustrate clear correlations that should inform policymaking. He celebrates past examples of data driving policy: “There's a very successful history of environmental rules and legislation in the United States and many other parts of the world. In the United States that really took off in 1970 with the establishment of the EPA and the passage of the Clean Air Act and then the Clean Water Act. And what has followed has been I think remarkable and probably larger improvements than people could have realized. But you have many of the main criteria of pollutants that are down by 75% since 1970. And along with that have come very tangible improvements in people's health. The average American, due to the reduction just in one form of air pollution, particulates air pollution, is probably living about 1.6 years longer than they would have otherwise. And that's a remarkable achievement.”