DURHAM, N.C. – President Barack Obama has announced his intent to nominate 91 economist Richard G. Newell as administrator of the federal Energy Information Administration.

Newell is the Gendell Associate Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. He has published widely on the role of energy markets, economic incentives and other energy policy options, particularly those intended to spur the development of alternative energy sources and technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve efficiency.

Confirmation hearings for Newell are expected to take place this summer. Upon confirmation by the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, he would take a leave of absence from his faculty position at the Nicholas School.

Prior to joining the Duke faculty in 2007, Newell was senior economist for energy and environment on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and a senior fellow at Resources for the Future, a nonprofit Washington, D.C., environmental and resource economic think tank. He is research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and has served on several National Academy of Sciences committees and other expert advisory boards.

The Energy Information Administration is the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. It serves as the nation’s premier source of unbiased data, analysis and forecasting on resources, supply, production and consumption for all energy sources.

“I am confident that Richard Newell will serve President Obama and our country with the same diligence, insight and clarity he has brought to his teaching and research at Duke,” said William L. Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School.