Breakout Session I
The Science of Carbon Sequestration
Ron Sands
Ron Sands is a Senior Economist with the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a collaboration between Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the University of Maryland. Ron joined PNNL in 1986 and has been with the Joint Global Change Research Institute since its founding in 2001. Since 1992 he has been a lead developer of the Second Generation Model (SGM), a computable-general-equilibrium economic model designed to simulate future greenhouse gas emissions in several world regions as well as the technology and policy options available for limiting emissions. He presently manages the economic analysis task within the U.S. Department of Energy program to enhance Carbon Sequestration in Terrestrial Ecosystems (CSiTE). Ron received a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree and a Ph.D. in economics, both from the University of Minnesota.
David Miller
David Miller is Chief Science Officer for AgraGate Climate Credits Corp and director of research and commodity services for the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation. As director of IFBF’s research and commodity services division, Miller helped IFBF become a leader in carbon credit aggregation. He has also been a key player in helping to establish the rules of the Chicago Climate Exchange on carbon offsets.
Miller coordinates the research programs of the Federation and the various commodity services offered by the Federation. He oversees the BIC Cattle program and provides economic analysis of agricultural issues. He is a primary liaison for the Federation with state and national commodity organizations.
Miller joined IFBF in April 1998 as director of commodity services. Prior to working for the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Miller served as a commodity policy specialist for the American Farm Bureau.
Miller received a BS degree in Agriculture and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Missouri and completed the course work for a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics.
Miller is active in production agriculture, operating a 400 acre grain farm in southern Iowa. He is also active in several national professional organizations. David and his wife, Dianne, have been married for more than 30 years. They have 8 children and 10 grandchildren. They live in Ankeny, IA.
Michael Walsh
Michael Walsh is an Executive Vice President of Chicago Climate Exchange, Inc., the world’s first and North America’ only voluntary, legally binding greenhouse gas reduction and trading program for all six greenhouse gases with offset projects worldwide. CCX’s affiliated companies European Climate Exchange and Chicago Climate Futures Exchange host markets for futures products based on European Union carbon dioxide emission allowances and U.S. sulfur dioxide emission allowances. Walsh also serves on the Board of Directors of the Montreal Climate Exchange.
In his prior position with Environmental Financial Products (the predecessor company to CCX), Mr. Walsh arranged several international carbon credit transactions and served as liaison and lead writer for a series of five technical papers on international emissions trading prepared for the Government of Canada. As a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development, Mr. Walsh provided instructional seminars on emissions trading for industry and government officials from several eastern European countries. He has been a speaker at United Nations climate conferences at Geneva, Kyoto, Buenos Aires, Bonn and The Hague, and has been a keynote speaker at industry conferences and educational workshops around the world, including events in Budapest, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro and Sydney.
Mr. Walsh also previously served as a Senior Economist with the Chicago Board of Trade where he directed the Chicago Board of Trade’s efforts to develop exchange-based environmental markets. Walsh designed and managed annual auctions of sulfur dioxide emission allowances conducted as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acid rain reduction program. Mr. Walsh has delivered Congressional testimony and provided dozens of presentations to state public utility commissions, national regulatory conferences and industry seminars. As the lead CBOT energy market analyst, he covered electricity market deregulation and evaluated the feasibility of electricity futures contracts. Mr. Walsh also directed, in conjunction with a team of industry and public sector leaders, establishment of the CBOT Recyclable Materials Exchange, an electronic marketplace backed by product standards, grading procedures and dispute resolution services. Walsh represented the CBOT in matters involving several U.S. government agencies including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Mr. Walsh has been on the faculties of the University of Notre Dame and the Illinois Institute of Technology, and has lectured at Princeton, Northwestern, Colorado, Illinois and Johns Hopkins (Bologna). Walsh holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Economics and Political Science from Illinois State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Michigan State University.