Experts in the News

“Up until [Hurricane] Harvey happened, nobody really wanted to address the elephant in the room, which is that the climate is changing and this is a real risk,” said CES senior director Ken Medlock. He anticipated the position of Texas' GOP officials will change over time not because their voters necessarily demand more action, but because the business community and institutional investors will keep moving ahead without them to cut carbon. Medlock is the James A. Baker, III, and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics. He anticipates the position of Texas' GOP officials will change over time not because their voters necessarily demand more action, but because the business community and institutional investors will keep moving ahead without them to cut carbon.

Once a Covid-19 vaccine arrives, how might it be distributed? Fellow Peter Hotez talked to New York Magazine about what a rollout might look like. 

Texas is one of only 16 states with limitations on who can request a mail-in ballot. “In that sense, Texas is behind the times,” said political science fellow Mark Jones.

Dan Wallach, a Baker Institute Rice faculty scholar, has sounded the alarm on insecure voting equipment for years. Wallach and a clerk in Travis County may have spurred real innovation in voting technology.

Energy fellow Michelle Foss testified before the U.S. House Energy Commerce Committee on critical minerals for energy transitions.