An Oil Spill Cost Study updating prior work (2019-era baseline) and supporting evaluation of Reasonable Worst-Case Spill (RWCS) volume criteria and financial responsibility requirements.
We are seeking a highly qualified senior contractor to support quantitative analysis, cost-model updates, benchmarking research, and high-quality technical writing. This is a short, high-impact engagement with potential follow-on work.
Scope of Work (What you’ll do)
You’ll work directly with our Project Director and science team to support:
Cost / damages data analysis
Clean, normalize, and summarize spill response cost and damages datasets (Excel-based workflows)
Produce distributional statistics, stratified summaries, and sensitivity checks
Document assumptions and limitations clearly (audit-ready)
RWCS and financial responsibility benchmarking
Research and summarize comparable state/federal frameworks and methodologies (concise, cited)
Support evaluation of formula suitability by facility/entity type
Model update support
Help refresh/update an existing cost-model approach (continuity is important)
Propose practical improvements where justified and defensible
Deliverable support
Draft technical sections, tables, and figures for a Word/PDF report
Create a clear “methods + reproducibility” narrative
Required Qualifications (Must-have)
Please apply only if you have strong evidence of the following:
7+ years professional experience in environmental economics, natural resource economics, quantitative policy analysis, or environmental liability cost modeling
Demonstrated experience with spill response cost estimation, environmental damages, or analogous liability/cost-of-incident modeling (e.g., disaster recovery, hazardous releases, industrial incidents)
Advanced capability in Excel (pivoting, structured models, QA checks); comfort with Python/R is a plus
Excellent technical writing: you can produce clear, defensible, regulator-facing narratives
Strong research discipline: can provide clean citations and avoid unsourced claims
Ability to handle sensitive information professionally (NDA-style expectations)
Highly Desired (Nice-to-have)
Familiarity with California regulatory context or OSPR-style frameworks
Experience supporting public comment intake/disposition matrices or stakeholder response logs
Knowledge of incident cost categories (cleanup, contractor costs, third-party costs, NRD context)
Experience working with government clients and audit-ready documentation
Deliverables (What success looks like)
Cleaned/organized analysis workbooks and/or scripts with reproducible outputs
Stratified cost summaries and sensitivity notes ready for inclusion in a report
Drafted report sections (methods, findings summaries, benchmarking narrative)
Clear documentation of assumptions, data completeness, and limitations