School Notes: School of the Environment
November/December 2006

Environmental risks larger than profits of major electric utilities

Over 90 percent of publicly owned U.S. electric utilities have environmental risks larger than their operating profits, according to researchers who have developed a new financial measure. In a study published in the July issue of Environmental Finance, Robert Repetto, professor in the practice of economics and sustainable development, estimates the environmental financial risks companies face and compares them with their ability to bear such risks, if they materialize.

Repetto's new financial measure -- TRUEVA, for "true value added" -- compares the operating profits companies make with their potential environmental costs. The economic damages from the pollution and wastes a company generates in the course of operations represent the extent of the company's potential financial risk, should it be forced to assume responsibility for those damages. The operating profits the company makes, after subtracting taxes and the costs of capital it employs in the business, represent the ability of the company to finance such risks. Companies whose profits are large compared with the damages they cause are less risky investments.

TRUEVA was applied to publicly owned U.S. electric utilities, which have large emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Of the 33 companies studied, all but three had environmental risks larger in financial terms than their operating profits after taxes and capital costs. Two of the largest companies, American Electric Power and the Southern Company, had negative TRUEVA of $4.8 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively, indicating large-scale risks to investors.

Environmental scientist receives NIH award to study ozone and disease

Michelle Bell, assistant professor of environmental health, is one of eight scientists to receive an Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) award from the National Institutes of Health. She will receive $500,000 to study the relationship between outdoor concentrations of ozone, a reactive form of oxygen that is a primary component of urban smog, and the incidence of respiratory disease and death in exposed populations.

Bell is one of two Yale University professors to receive a ONES award. Sven-Eric Jordt, assistant professor of pharmacology in the School of Medicine, will study the way in which certain airborne pollutants interact with sensory nerve cells in order to produce eye, nose, and throat irritation.

Tropical ecology professor wins MacArthur "genius" award

Lisa Curran, professor of tropical ecology and director of the Tropical Resources Institute at F&ES, has been awarded a five-year John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

Like all MacArthur Fellows, the award came as a total surprise to Curran, who was delighted by the news. "It's like winning the lottery after 20 years of Survivor in Borneo. Actually, this has been a tremendous team effort. I've worked with some of my Indonesian colleagues for 18 years. I'm part of all the people I've met: the villagers, the loggers, the scientists, and the students -- both from the U.S. and Indonesia."

Curran has focused her research on the forests of Borneo and the ecology of its most economically important family of tropical timber, Philippine mahogany. She has worked to devise new strategies to address deforestation and its devastating environmental consequences. Curran and her research team study the structure and dynamics of tropical forests using satellite remote sensing, field ecology, ground-based surveys, and analysis to learn how the environment is altered by human activities and to improve the management of these forests by integrating scientific knowledge with the sociological, political, and economic realities on the ground. She has been instrumental in the establishment of national parks in Indonesia and has worked to counter illegal logging and the corruption that allowed it to take place.