Research Library

The authors conduct a step-by-step examination of various factors that were blamed for the extended power outage on the ERCOT electricity grid in February 2021. While no single factor fully explains the calamity, the bureaucratic failure in identifying and addressing risks along fuel supply chains was a major failure. Most proposed remedies do not fundamentally address what occurred. The authors make several recommendations, some of which have already been implemented.

In this working paper, the author examines the economic effects of enacting a proposal by the Biden administration to tax long term capital gains at ordinary income tax rates for those with taxable income above $1 million and tax unrealized gains at the time of death for single (joint) filers with more than $1 million ($2 million) in unrealized gains. A similar version of the report was prepared with the financial support of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation.

This is the first analysis focused specifically on whether subnational resource curse dynamics seen in other oil-rich locales (1) apply to the Permian Basin and if so, to what extent, and (2) compensatory policy steps.

How can the U.S. government help the recovery of the post-transition Venezuelan oil and gas sector? The authors offer key recommendations.

In this background document, the authors provide some information on the choices of key parameter values used in the Diamond-Zodrow model. They focus on parameters involving labor supply, saving, international capital flows and substitution among factors of production.

The authors investigate the connection between the choice of transportation mode used by commuters and the probability of COVID-19 transmission.

Texas is the source of about one-quarter of all energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the US industrial sector and about one-eighth of all CO2 emissions from the US power generation sector, with a significant proportion of emissions in both sectors located near the gulf coast. As such, Texas has the opportunity to capture significant economies of scale in carbon capture.

Jim Krane, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies, argues that Saudi Aramco’s quest to remain the “last man standing” in global oil depends not just on its substantial cost advantages. Declining social acceptance of fossil fuel combustion suggests that Aramco’s pursuit of carbon competitiveness will assume growing importance.

A working group led by the Baker Institute has developed an innovative measurement-based standard — “BCarbon” — for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil as organic carbon. BCarbon is a scalable soil carbon storage standard designed to work for landowners and soil carbon storage buyers. The proposed standard allows landowners to monetize soil carbon storage as a property right.