Experts in the News

“The U.S. views Morocco as a stable partner in the region, meaning that Biden risks upsetting an important ally if he rescinds the recognition,” said Middle East fellow Kelsey Norman of the Trump administration's controversial recognition of Morocco's sovereignty over the Western Sahara region.

"The free market ideology ignores risks. Most people want to keep the lights on more than make a market theory work," said Baker Institute expert Dan Cohan. Cohan and others call for big changes to Texas' deregulated electricity market. 

Some have said that President Biden's cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline early in his presidency would quickly result in higher gasoline prices — but that's not the case, said energy fellow Mark Finley. For starters, the pipeline wasn’t operating yet. "Revoking it does nothing to today’s balance" of supply and demand, he said. On the supply side, OPEC and Russia have made voluntary production cuts, which has the effect of raising prices, Finley said, and U.S. companies are investing less in finding new sources of oil.

Gov. Abbott's demands to mandate winterization of the Texas power infrastructure miss the mark, wrote Rice faculty scholar Dan Cohan. "Reliable and resilient energy and water systems must prepare for a full spectrum of extremes, not just winter events."

President Biden’s approach to Saudi Arabia so far is mostly a reversion to the pre-Trump status quo, rather than an overdue and fundamental shift in policy, wrote nonresident scholar Annelle Sheline. Still, "while many rightly consider engagement with MBS distasteful, for the sake of Saudi and American citizens as well as the global climate, Biden should help [him] achieve his more admirable goals while constraining his malignant inclinations."