Biography
Gabriel Collins is the Baker Botts Fellow in Energy & Environmental Regulatory Affairs at Rice University's Baker Institute. He was previously an associate attorney at Baker Hostetler, LLP, and is the co-founder of the China SignPost™ (洞察中国) analysis portal. Collins has worked in the Department of Defense as a China analyst and as a private sector global commodity researcher, authoring more than 100 commodity analysis reports, both for private clients and for publication.
Collins’ research portfolio is global. His work currently focuses on legal, environmental and economic issues relating to water — including the food-water-energy nexus — as well as unconventional oil and gas development, and the intersection between global commodity markets and a range of environmental, legal and national security issues. His analysis draws from a broad swath of geospatial and other data streams, and often incorporates insights from sources in Chinese, Russian and Spanish.
Collins received his B.A. from Princeton University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. He is licensed to practice law in Texas.
Contact him at gabe.collins@rice.edu or (713) 348-5939.
Recent Publications
To Fight Severe Drought, China Is Turning to Technology
Aimed at combating severe drought, China’s water diversion project is expected to cost $62 billion. But fellow Gabe Collins said that these large-scale engineering efforts “could actually exacerbate the drought situation.
China’s Drought Threatens Nation’s Energy, Food and Economic Security
Drought is straining China’s energy resources, with Sichuan’s largest coal-fired power plant operating at full capacity for much of August. Energy fellow Gabriel Collins remarked that this was "eye-catching" because “the average plant utilization across China over the last few years has been closer to 50%."
China’s Growing Water Crisis
A looming water crisis in China not only could affect the country's grain and electricity production, it could also induce global food and industrial materials shortages, wrote fellow Gabe Collins and co-author Gopal Reddy.