Research Library

The term “sustainability” is a frequently misconstrued descriptor, oftentimes used synonymously with the concept of a circular economy. In this issue brief, energy fellow Rachel Meidl explains the distinction between circularity and sustainability and how a systems-level approach to waste management can build an economy that is resilient to future global disruptions.

In this report, the authors outline the U.S. federal budget process for scientific R&D, discuss trends in federal R&D funding and provide an outlook for federal scientific R&D funding during the Biden administration.

How did the pandemic impact energy markets around the world? The results of this year's bp Statistical Review of World Energy show how the U.S. led the widespread decline in energy production, oil was the energy type most impacted by shutdowns, and global trade for fossil fuels fell more rapidly than production.

Gabriel Collins, the Baker Botts Fellow in Energy and Environmental Regulatory Affairs, explains why Section 625 of the CLEAN Future Act — which aims to classify oilfield-produced water as a hazardous waste — would likely induce multi-system disruptions severe enough to prevent the act from achieving its climate, energy, environmental, and social objectives.

This report explores Houston's substantial comparative advantage in finding and developing low-carbon solutions and creating opportunities to efficiently and effectively deploy the region’s vast resources to produce and deliver cleaner, greener fuels to the nation and the world.

2021 changes to Mexico’s Hydrocarbon Law are expressions of state power through legal reforms, and are exceptionally alarming. Nonresident scholar Miriam Grunstein explains in the Baker Institute Blog.

Electricity is the new oil when it comes to energy security, writes Mark Finley, fellow in energy and global oil. The immediacy of power outages and the ubiquity of critical elements of modern life powered by electricity mean the impact of oil supply disruptions are a walk in the park compared to our power vulnerabilities.

This brief reviews the cost and development problems associated with NASA's plan to return to the moon by 2024 and argues that it is crucial for officials at NASA and the White House to review and adjust the current plans in order to ensure a successful lunar landing.

U.S. backing of key gas infrastructure projects in Central and Eastern Europe can foster deeper market liberalization, the authors write, and make European partners more resilient against Russian energy coercion.

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.