In June 2023, the international boundary treaty governing the U.S.-Mexico border came under attack from Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lonestar. In a new research paper, nonresident scholars Stephen Mumme and Regina M. Buono outline the treaty’s history and examine key issues — advising on merits of recent challenges and long-term implications for the binational relationship between the United States and Mexico.

How can Texas secure an affordable, sustainable, and reliable power supply for all its citizens? This report explores key insights from research conducted at Rice University.

Six years after Hurricane Harvey deluged the Texas Gulf Coast, how exposed are Houston and Harris County to flooding risk? Jim Blackburn and Jennifer Borski examine key challenges and changes needed going forward.

Some court losses turn into wins. This paper explores two Texas coast cases with wider environmental implications for any community concerned about flood control, water recycling or endangered species.

Electronic waste is surging globally, presenting growing threats to the environment and human health. Rachel A. Meidl explains how coordinated action can help us move to a sustainable, circular economy of electronics.

In the next year, the EPA could make a final decision on whether to classify PVC as hazardous waste. What would this entail? Fellow Rachel Meidl explores why a hazardous designation for PVC would have costly implications — moving the U.S. further from its goal of achieving a sustainable, circular economy.

The basis of the federal government's ethanol support and the impact of the most current legislation, the Renewable Fuel Standard, is examined.

This paper reports the key climate change and public policy issues addressed by guest speakers during the 2014-15 Climate Lecture Series hosted by the Center for Energy Studies.

This paper investigates how new potential and proposed regulations will influence the natural gas market in the United States in the coming decades, using the Rice World Gas Trade Model (RWGTM) to examine scenarios in which domestic natural gas development is stressed in a variety of ways. It considers a range of possible policy actions from the federal to the local level.

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Abstract

About 300,000 cardiac arrests occur…