Experts in the News

"During the Obama administration, Texas was the antithesis to the administration. And during the Biden administration, Texas is again," said political science fellow Mark Jones.

International trade fellow David Gantz said the U.S. economy “recovered much faster than anyone expected,” and the supply chain is struggling to keep up with consumer demand. Holiday shoppers should start now while the selection is still decent, experts said.

Congratulations to Child Health Policy Program scholar Christopher Kulesza, recently appointed to the Texas Advisory Committee for the  U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The commission is the only independent bipartisan agency charged with advising the president and Congress on civil rights and reporting annually on federal civil rights enforcement. State advisory committees offer a broad perspective of civil rights concerns at the state and local levels.

While the $2.7 trillion infrastructure bill just "scratches the surface" of what's needed to fix the U.S. energy grid, it's "realistic" to replace the grid's fossil fuels with clean sources by 2035 or so — should we muster the political will, said Baker Institute Faculty Scholar Dan Cohan.

After February's freeze and statewide electricity blackout, Texas leaders "dropped the ball on not doing anything on [securing out-of-state electricity] transmission," said faculty scholar Daniel Cohan. "Even if we don’t become fully integrated with the national grid," Texas should at least have "more of those ties [which] could make us much more resilient."