Dr. Raab has designed and served as lead facilitator/mediator on hundreds of cutting-edge energy, climate, and environmental stakeholder processes in the U.S. and Canada. Some of his major cases include the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the New England Demand Response Initiative (NEDRI); renewable portfolio standards (RPS), distributed generation interconnection standards, and energy efficiency collaboratives in multiple states; greenhouse gas planning processes for the city of Boston, the state of Maine and the state of Rhode Island (which received EPA’s Climate Protection Award in 2005); Grid Modernization processes in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island; Cape Wind; Energy Facility Siting in New Hampshire; Vermont’s Energy Future; Alberta’s Market Participant Rules; and the Energy Plan for Tennessee.
He has also run stakeholder processes for U.S. DOE, U.S Fish & Wildlife, and U.S. EPA, and has done work on stakeholder engagement in Germany (transmission) and Japan (nuclear). Dr. Raab has also performed detailed assessments of a wide array of stakeholder processes, including PJM’s stakeholder process and the Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Advisory Council.
Dr. Raab has run the New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable since 1995, and the Energy Policy Roundtable in the PJM Footprint since 2016. He is on the mediation panels for the PJM Power Pool and the Mid-Continent Area Power Pool, and on the dispute resolution rosters of the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is the author of
Using Consensus Building to Improve Utility Regulation (ACEEE: foreword by Susan Tierney)
Prior to establishing Raab Associates, Dr. Raab was the Assistant Director of the Electric Power Division at the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. He holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Energy and Environmental Policy, and Resource Economics), an M.S. from Stanford University's Civil Engineering Department (Infrastructure Planning and Management), and an A.B. (distinction) in Social Sciences, also from Stanford. Dr. Raab has taught courses at the University of Oregon, Stanford, and UMass (Boston). He designed and taught the Energy Policy for a Sustainable Future course at MIT from 2006 to 2011.
Janet Gail Besser is a nationally recognized energy policy and regulatory strategy expert, with experience as a regulator,
clean energy business association leader, utility executive, developer, consultant, and consumer advocate. She has been moderating the
New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable since the beginning of 2023. Prior to 2023, she led the Smart Electric Power Alliance’s
Regulatory and Business Innovation work as vice president.
Previously, she was executive vice president of the Northeast Clean Energy Council; VP, Regulatory Strategy and Policy at National Grid;
Chair and Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities; and an executive and expert at Analysis Group and Lexecon.
She also held senior staff roles at the Massachusetts Energy Office and New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, was policy director
for a national IPP association, and worked for a small hydro developer and low-income consumer advocate.
Janet is the recipient of the 2019 Northeast Energy and Commerce Association Vanguard Award and the 2014 Northeast Women in Energy and the Environment
Achievement Award. She recently chaired the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on the role of net metering in the
evolving electricity system. She is the chair of the Power Options Board and serves on the VEIC Board, where she chairs the Impact and Evaluation Committee.
Janet has an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a B.A., magna cum laude, from Williams College.
Susan Rivo, Senior Associate, Raab Associates. Since 2004, Susan has provided project management and support services on
all Raab Associates' stakeholder engagement projects. This includes scheduling; interfacing with stakeholders; document management;
managing project websites; developing PowerPoints, agendas and graphics; conducting research as needed; and copy-editing for all
communications and publications, including final reports.
Susan handles the event planning for the New England
Electricity Restructuring and PJM Footprint Roundtables, and for all stakeholder/work group meetings utilizing event management platforms
such as Eventbrite and Constant Contact. She also secures meeting venues, and interfaces with speakers, registrants, caterers, building
security, print shops, video and web streaming companies. In addition, Susan is a professional copy editor and
documentary filmmaker. She holds a BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from UC Berkeley and an MFA in film production from San Francisco
State University.
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