Jim Barrett, PhD

Jim Barrett has over 25 years of experience working on energy and environmental issues. He has produced numerous in-depth economic analyses covering issues ranging from national climate policy to the economic impacts of renewable energy development projects. His consulting clients include the Loan Programs Office at the Department of Energy, where he helped identify promising cutting-edge clean energy projects for potential federal support, and the World Bank, where he developed and assessed various national-level energy efficiency and clean energy development pathways.

Prior to consulting, he served as the Chief Economist at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), where he led the economics and finance program. There, he conducted and led several projects ranging from valuing the risk associated with exposure to electricity spot market volatility to assessing finance initiatives aimed at enabling clean energy investments in low and moderate-income communities. He also produced numerous studies modeling the economic impact of various energy efficiency policies and investment strategies.

Before joining ACEEE, he served as the Executive Director of Redefining Progress and Senior Economist on the staff of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. He earned his B.A. in economics from Bucknell University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Connecticut.