Research Library

This paper models the oil strategy of Gulf Arab states under three future energy transition scenarios. Under the most ambitious scenario, the region would have to decouple its oil revenues from its economic growth and could face significant economic and political consequences.

Although President Joe Biden campaigned on a promise of ending Title 42 — a contentious border policy enacted by former President Donald Trump and used to expel asylum seekers — his administration has actually expanded its use, writes Kelsey Norman, the director of the Women’s Rights, Human Rights and Refugees Program at the Baker Institute. In this policy brief, she explores Biden’s recent changes to migration policy and proposes a better way to help those seeking asylum.

In 2022, the nation faced fundamental questions about how we govern our economy and society — particularly how we formulate public policy. Here, we share 10 highlights of our work that illustrate our impact from the previous year.

A number of states are moving toward accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for tax payments, writes public finance fellow Joyce Beebe. She explores the challenges this may bring and why a sizable number of states are racing to be viewed as crypto-friendly.

China’s dominance over the supply of rare earths — which are critical for energy transition and defense technologies — should spur U.S. policymakers to bolster raw materials supply chains, write energy fellow Michelle Michot Foss and co-author Jacob Koelsch.

After Winter Storm Uri left millions of Texans without power in February 2021, what steps have been taken to improve the reliability of the Texas grid? This workshop summary from the Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies explores long-term market design reforms that could make a difference.

Europe’s reliance on fuel-switching and demand-rationing — and its need for new natural gas supply sources — will persist through this winter into next year. Using a newly developed interactive dashboard, Center for Energy Studies experts analyze possible winter scenarios using Germany as a case study.

In a workshop hosted by the Center for Energy Studies and the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center earlier this year, experts considered the future of US shale oil and gas production. Given the need for oil supplies in the near term, is a new shale renaissance on the horizon?

Why does Texas have its own power grid, and how can its history inform the future of electric power in the state? Nonresident scholar Julie Cohn looks beyond the mythology surrounding the standalone Texas grid and finds that reliability and economics — not politics — were the major factors leading to isolation.

Without urgent action, the impact of China’s water shortages will ripple across the globe and dramatically perturb global markets for food, energy and industrial goods, write fellow Gabriel Collins and co-author Gopal Reddy.