UMaine Professor Rubin Appointed Chair of National Committee
ORONO — Jonathan Rubin, a professor in the University of Maine School of Economics and Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, has been appointed chair of a national committee looking at issues related to energy use and efficiency in passenger and freight transportation.
The Transportation Energy Committee, which Rubin now chairs, is part of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies. Based in Washington, DC, TRB provides “leadership in transportation innovation and progress through research and information exchange, conducted within a setting that is objective, interdisciplinary and multimodal,” according to its Web site.
It is jointly administered by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine.
Rubin, whose areas of expertise include the economics of alternative transportation fuels and vehicles, has been on the UMaine faculty since 1998. He has conducted extensive research on market-based solutions to achieve environmental goals.
He was the lead author of a 2009 study, conducted on behalf of the Maine Dept. of Transportation, reviewing Maine’s winter road maintenance measures, including the use of road salt, the environmental impact and driver safety. Rubin is currently leading the effort, funded by the Energy Foundation, to evaluate a national low carbon fuel standard.