Incentivizing the Reduction of Pollution at Dairies: How to Address Additionality When Multiple Environmental Credit Payments Are Combined

Dr. Brian C. Murray is Director of the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Research Professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment (primary) and Sanford School of Public Policy (secondary), and Faculty Associate of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society. In 2015 he was Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Environment and Economy at University of Ottawa’s Institute of the Environment.  He is widely recognized for his work on the economics of energy and climate change policy, including the design of market based mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gases and deploy low-carbon energy. Members of the United States Congress, state legislators and regulators have sought the counsel of Dr. Murray and colleagues in developing energy and climate legislative proposals and regulatory options.  Their development of the cost containment reserve mechanism is now in use in several greenhouse cap-and-trade programs in North America.  Dr. Murray has been invited as a co-author of several national and international assessments of natural resources, especially related to energy and climate change. Of particular note, he serves on a National Academy of Sciences panel on greenhouse gases and the tax code, where he led the panel’s efforts on biofuel subsidies.  He was a convening lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry. He has convened several forums of economic modeling experts to examine and communicate the results of their climate, energy and land use policy efforts to the public and private sectors.  His research has examined the economic effects of traditional command-based regulatory strategies for pollution control and more market-oriented approaches such as cap-and-trade programs and emission taxes.  He has been a consultant to a wide range of clientele in the public and private sector, including numerous federal government agencies, members of Congress and their staff, state regulatory agencies, CEOs and senior staff from Fortune 500 companies, trade groups, nongovernmental organizations, and other academic institutions.   He has authored or co-authored over 100 publications in books, edited volumes, and professional journals across a range od disciplines.  From 2017-21 he was a regular contributor to Forbes. Prior to coming to the Nicholas Institute in 2006, Dr. Murray was Director of the Center for Regulatory Economics and Policy Research at RTI International, a university-affiliated not-for-profit research institution. 

Tibor Vegh serves as a senior policy associate with the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. He is an applied social scientist with a background in environmental planning and economics. Vegh’s applied and policy-relevant research centers on the resilience of coupled human and natural systems; the economic, social, and environmental implications within the context of coastal adaptation; and the reliance on natural systems to benefit communities in the face of uncertainty and environmental risks. Vegh is a lead or collaborator on a wide range of projects where he contributes his economic, financial, and policy analysis skills, as well as his understanding of environmental planning approaches to solve real-world problems.

Vegh’s most recent work focuses on the social and economic aspects of coastal and urban resilience and multidimensional adaptation to risks in coastal and ocean systems. He has also collaborated on projects spanning many other topics, including fisheries economics, plastics pollution mitigation, ecological restoration, ecosystem service markets, bioenergy, and more.

Vegh holds a PhD in city and regional planning with a focus on environmental planning from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He earned his master's degree in forestry with a focus on economics from Northern Arizona University in 2011 and his bachelor's degree in economics with a minor in mathematics from North Carolina State University in 2008.