I am currently a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Economics at the University of Montana. During my tenure at the University (1970-2007) I taught courses in environmental economics and as a member of the interdisciplinary Environmental Studies faculty supervised numerous graduate theses. I, also with Prof. Ron Erickson, created, obtained funding for and chaired the International Environmental Studies program, which included multidisciplinary curriculum development and a faculty seminar and public lecture series. As an outcome of the program, I edited a collection of faculty papers, International Dimensions of the Environmental Crisis (Island Press, 1982).
I have been awarded two Fulbright Lectureships at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo Leon, Monterey, Mexico (1974-75 and 1982), where I taught the first course in environmental economics ever offered at a Mexican university. I was awarded a Fulbright Senior Specialist appointment at the Universidad ORT, in Montevideo, Uruguay (2003), where I lectured on environmental economics and supervised graduate research. My work on public policy in the state of Montana includes serving at various times as a consultant to the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the Department of Environmental Quality, a member of the Governor’s Economic Development Council, and a member of the Federal Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission. From 2008 to 2020 I was an elected member of the Montana Legislature (House, 2008-2012; Senate, 2012-2020) where I served on both House and Senate Taxation Committees, the House Natural Resources Committee, and the Senate Energy Committee.
I have authored numerous articles, reports and presentations on various aspects of the Montana economy, including, with Thomas M. Power, Post Cowboy Economics: Pay and Prosperity in the New American West, an analysis of the impact of structural transformation and the decline of extractive natural resource industry on the economies of Mountain West states.