Rick Weston has worked extensively in all of RAP’s regions, most recently as director of the India program and, before that, of China. In both places, the work focused on decarbonization of the electric sector through wholesale market reforms, policies to drive investment in renewables, electrification of buildings and transportation, and regulatory reforms to better align utility behavior with the public interest. Also, in a short stint as director of policy, he concentrated on identifying and developing responses to new trends in energy production and use, greater integration of RAP’s regional programs, and development of RAP’s staff and intellectual resources.

He joined RAP in 1999 after 11 years as an economist and hearing officer with the Vermont Public Service Board, since renamed the Public Utility Commission. His work there covered a variety of matters, including the design and implementation of integrated least-cost plans, investment decisions and power purchases, rate-setting and rate design, competition in local telecommunications service, and the creation of Efficiency Vermont, the nation’s first “energy efficiency utility.” In the mid-1990s, he was co-chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ (NARUC) staff subcommittee to the Committee on Energy Conservation (now Energy Resources and the Environment). He also served as co-chair of NARUC’s Staff Subcommittee on Electric Industry Restructuring.

Before joining the Public Service Board, Mr. Weston was an energy and economic consultant for clients in the U.S. and Middle East, and was employed with the American International Group in Saudi Arabia from 1981 to 1984.

Mr. Weston earned his master’s in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and his bachelor’s from Middlebury College. He received advanced intensive training in Arabic from the American University in Cairo.