The authors examine tensions in nickel supply and value chains within the context of broad aspirations to electrify transport. Through their case study, which focuses on China’s growing presence in Indonesian nickel extraction and processing, they contend that China is positioning itself as a gatekeeper to the energy transition — with vast implications for strategic planning in the United States.
On May 28, the Biden administration announced plans to speed up immigrant court cases — a bid to limit backlogs and extremely long waits for cases to be heard. The Center for the United States and Mexico wrote about this problem in its April 2021 recommendations for an "effective, nimble and fair” immigration court system.
More than a decade after G20 representatives pledged to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, significant barriers to a full retraction remain. This paper examines the political and social rationale behind fossil fuel subsidies, the factors that make them so difficult to retract, and offers policy recommendations aimed at easing the path to subsidy reform.
The authors use survey and interview data to evaluate drug treatment options available through the court diversion process for people charged with drug offenses in Harris County, Texas.
Katharine Neill Harris, Jay JenkinsDecember 10, 2019
Key industry practices followed by international oil and gas companies, if adequately implemented by Pemex, may complement Mexico's energy plan to help recognize areas of opportunity for Pemex, the authors write.
The Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Qatar Leadership Centre hosted a roundtable on February 15-16, 2017, in Doha, Qatar, to discuss some of the most pressing challenges facing market participants in the global energy landscape, with a focus on several issues of paramount interest to Qatar and the broader Gulf Cooperation Council.
Kenneth B. Medlock III, Jim Krane, Francisco J. Monaldi, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Gabriel CollinsSeptember 5, 2017
Recent academic research has shown that startup training institutions can greatly increase the number of startup firms receiving seed and early-stage venture capital for the first time. In this paper, the authors examine the startup training institutions in Houston, and what they are doing to open up the city’s pipeline of startups.
Edward J. Egan, Benjamin J. Baldazo, Dylan T. DickensMay 31, 2017
As China continues to open up to the transnational circulation of labor, ideas, technology and capital under globalization, one must wonder: will Chinese society’s more cosmopolitan and transnational groups continue to be guided by guanxi, the system of social networks and influential relationships that facilitate business and other dealings?
Steven W. Lewis, Elaine Howard Ecklund, Di DiMarch 31, 2017
Taking a health-based approach toward curbing the rising use of synthetic cannabinoids, which has caused dangerous and sometimes fatal side effects in extreme cases, may be a more effective policy for the City of Houston, postdoctoral fellow Katharine A. Neill writes in this report.
The development of the petroleum sector has been characterized by a succession of cycles of investment and expropriation that have been particularly pronounced in Latin America. This paper analyzes the causes of these cycles and the lessons that can be derived and applied during the implementation of the petroleum reform in Mexico.