Jason Bass is an economist and financial analyst with 25 + years of experience working on a wide range of natural resource-development, market, capital acquisition and management issues. Jason’s primary areas of expertise include: economic and financial feasibility analysis resource and business valuation economic and fiscal impact evaluation, litigation support and environmental compliance. Clients he has worked for in these areas have included the Eastern New Mexico Water Conservancy District, Edison Mission Energy, Southwest Texas Water Resources, over 20 Indian tribes including the Ute of Eastern Utah and Osage Nation of Oklahoma and numerous law firms and developers.
Projects that Jason has managed or performed have had the following objectives, among others:
Evaluate the economic and financial feasibility of oil and gas, mineral, water and other natural resource development projects for implementation decision-making, financing and securing resource ownership rights.
Assess impacts of water resource and real estate development project implementation and operations on local and regional economic, public fiscal and demographic conditions and trends.
Design and implement methodologies for economic cost-benefit analysis and resource demand assessment.
Determine the fair market value and prospective investment rates-of-return associated with natural resource asset development and acquisition.
Estimate market-based and income-based rents to determine equitable resource use charges.
Prepare environmental, and other compliance documentation in resource planning and policy proceedings.
Estimate economic costs and benefits of environmental quality and recreation resource enhancement programs.
As a former principal with Dornbusch Associates, Jason provided over two hours of direct, cross-examination and rebuttal testimony regarding the value of the hospitality concession at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park (which grosses about $70 million annually). He also provided expert testimony in a FERC hearing regarding charges due the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin from Wisconsin Power & Light for the latter’s use of tribal land for power generation. In addition, he provided written expert-witness testimony regarding the valuation and investment opportunity associated with the primary retail concession operation at Yellowstone National Park and agricultural water values and associated market-supportable water rates within the Wapato Irrigation District in Washington State. Jason has been deposed on several occasions. He has also testified in court on his monetary damage assessment of lost compensation in a wrongful termination matter and in Federal court regarding the fair allocation of sales and property taxes. Most recently he assisted Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Merced Counties in California with an evaluation of the potential regional economic impacts from a proposed substantial cutback of agricultural and M&I diversions of surface water by the region’s agricultural districts and the Jicarilla Apache Nation in its negotiations with the Bureau of Reclamation regarding the Nation’s repayment obligation for the water that will be delivered to the Nation by the proposed Navajo-Gallup water supply project. For the former he provided formal testimony to the California State Water Quality Control Board on behalf of the counties. He also prepared a white paper challenging the application of the Federal Principals and Guidelines for water resource development economic planning to cost-benefit analysis of water projects in quantifying Native American Federal Reserved Water Rights. This effort was performed under contract with the U.S. Department of Justice. Jason was subsequently engaged by the Department of Justice to prepare its Assessment and Recommendation Report in support of legislation for the settlement of the water rights of the Blackfeet Indian Nation of Montana. For the latter he examined the results of several contingent valuation surveys administered by the Bureau of Reclamation as a basis to determine local community willingness-to-pay for water applying benefits transfer methods.
While a student at the University of British Columbia, Canada, Jason helped to develop a methodology for assessing the economic and environmental impacts of alternative timber management methods. The study focused on five demonstration forests in the lower Fraser River Basin and was conducted under a research fellowship from the University.
As a Masters student at the University of California, Davis, Jason worked extensively on a project sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey to evaluate the potential economic and environmental impacts of stricter EPA water quality standards on agricultural irrigation and energy project drainage in California's Central Valley. He later teamed with the professors involved in the EPA work on a consulting engagement for the State’s Department of Water Resources (“DWR”) to design and administer a survey for Central Valley farmers to evaluate their response to constraints in water supply. Jason compiled all of the survey data and prepared associated statistical analyses to be used in support of quantitative modelling for ongoing DWR water supply management planning.
Prior to his Masters studies, Jason was an analyst for the accounting firm Ernst & Young in its litigation support division, and EconomInc, an economic and financial consulting firm in Berkeley, California specializing in litigation support (merged with Law and Economics Consulting Group). His work with both firms required economic, financial, accounting, survey and statistical research and analysis for litigation support engagements primarily in the areas of anti-trust, lost profits and valuation.
From 2006 through 2008, Jason worked primarily with a lodging consultancy, Warnick + Company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona which he joined following more than ten years with Dornbusch Associates. Jason’s work while with Warnick + Company focused on helping clients to obtain development and redevelopment equity and debt financing, evaluating the financial feasibility of alternative investment strategies, market research, property valuation, management contract analysis and negotiation, and litigation support within the mixed use lodging and recreation sectors.
Jason left Warnick + Company in late 2008 to establish his own, independent, socio-economic advisory practice and focus his efforts on natural resource, real estate and environmental economic research and analysis advisory services. Jason’s most recent clients include the Navajo Nation, U.S. Department of Justice, San Carlos Apache Nation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Imperial Irrigation District, Anwyl, Scoffield & Stepp, LLP., EKN Development Group, Baker Tilly Capital, Maurice Robinson & Associates, and Resort Advisory Group International, among many others. Jason holds a Bachelor’s of Science in the Political Economy of Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley (1988) and a Master’s of Science in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis (1992). From 1992 to 1993, he undertook a year of coursework, teaching and research within the Economics Department of the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the State California and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the CFA Institute.
Publications:
Bass, J. “Fixed or Variable? A Methodology for Analyzing Lodging Property Operating Cost Structures” E-Hoteliers.com and hotel-online.com June 20, 2011 available at www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2011_2nd/Jun11_FixedVariable.html
Gold, H. David and Jason Bass. “The Energy-Water Nexus: Socio-Economic Considerations and Suggested Legal Reforms in the Southwest”, University of New Mexico School of Law, Natural Resources Journal, Vol. 50, No. 3, May 11, 2011
Bass J., B. Chase, D. Dornbusch, and M. Robinson. “How to Value Commercial Improvements in a National Park,” Real Estate Issues, Winter 2001/2001
Bass J., L. Lipper, J. Merchant and D. Zilberman. “Cost Benefit Analysis in the Context of Indigenous Water Rights: A Critique of the U.S. Water Resource Council Principles and Guidelines,” presented at Girona Development Economics Symposium. Geneva, Switzerland. June 21, 2001
Expert Witness Testimony:
Arbitration: National Park Service v. AmFac (mgt. contract and value dispute Grand Canyon)
Deposition: Aspesi v. Hyundai of America (wrongful termination suit) U.S. and Tulalip Tribe v. State of Washington and Skokomish County (sales and property tax dispute)
Mediation: National Park Service v. YMCA (lease value contract dispute) Advani v. Delirium (negligence and lost income dispute) CHA La Mirada v. Red Robin Restaurants (lost income dispute)
Affidavit: U.S. BOR v. Yakama Nation (water charges/ability-to-pay dispute) National Park Service v. American Facilities (management contract and valuation dispute Yellowstone)
Court: Aspesi v. Hyundai of America (wrongful termination suit) Ute Tribe v. McDowell et. Al. (illegal taking of land and water) U.S. and Tulalip Tribe v. State of Washington and Skokomish County (sales and property tax dispute)
Admin Hearing: Menominee Indian Nation v. FERC (challenge to dam re-licensing and monetary damages for unpaid charges)
