http://​www2​.hum​boldt​.edu/​e​n​v​i​r​o​n​m​e​n​t​/​f​a​c​u​l​t​y​-​a​n​d​-​s​t​a​f​f​/​d​r​.​-​k​e​v​i​n​-​f​i​n​g​e​r​man

My research is dri­ven by an inter­est in the broad-based envi­ron­men­tal and social impacts of ener­gy tech­nolo­gies and poli­cies. This work seeks to make explic­it the trade-offs that are often present between ener­gy secu­ri­ty, cli­mate, and oth­er impor­tant social and envi­ron­men­tal objec­tives. In par­tic­u­lar, I have worked on issues at the water/​energy nexus, eval­u­at­ing the “water foot­prints” of a range of ener­gy tech­nolo­gies. Water and ener­gy are inex­tri­ca­bly linked, with elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion sec­ond only to agri­cul­ture in total glob­al water with­drawals. This con­nec­tion is par­tic­u­lar­ly acute for bioen­er­gy, as it is by far the most water-inten­sive of all ener­gy types. My research has employed life cycle assess­ment (LCA), agro-cli­mat­ic mod­el­ing, and GIS tools to show that bio­fu­els rou­tine­ly require sev­er­al orders of mag­ni­tude more water than petro­le­um fuels while often pro­vid­ing only mod­est cli­mate benefit.

I approach my research with an eye toward imple­men­ta­tion. This has led me to work with Cal­i­for­nia reg­u­la­to­ry agen­cies on fuel pol­i­cy for­mu­la­tion and to serve as vice-chair of the Gene­va-based Round­table on Sus­tain­able Bio­fu­els. Pri­or to com­ing to HSU, I worked in Rome for the Unit­ed Nations Food and Agri­cul­ture Orga­ni­za­tion. While there, I pro­vid­ed sup­port to the gov­ern­ments of Indone­sia and Colom­bia in eval­u­at­ing the envi­ron­men­tal and social impacts of their bio­fu­el indus­tries, and in for­mu­lat­ing poli­cies to address those impacts.