Research Library

Energy and environment fellow Rachel A. Meidl discusses how the Covid-19 pandemic is disrupting the waste, plastic, and recycling industries. In response, she stresses the need for a systems-level approach. Forbes blog: https://bit.ly/3cDbseB

Even before the pandemic, Mexico’s health care system was in crisis, with shortages of medical supplies, drugs, and personnel. A president that is downplaying the outbreak, brandishing amulets to “protect” him from the virus, isn’t helping matters. Baker Institute blog: https://bit.ly/2w6KJHV

International and domestic oil and gas markets and prices are under heavy pressure from COVID-19 impacts and the Russian-Saudi Arabia oil market battle. With, all eyes are on U.S. domestic producers, especially those occupying the shale patch, Michelle Michot Foss, fellow in energy and minerals, provides some important considerations for the U.S. oil and gas industry. Forbes Blog: http://bit.ly/2WqVEqt

Science and engineering graduate students in the Spring 2020 Developing Civic Scientist Leaders (DCSL) Program at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy discuss specific science policy topics, with a focus on international science collaboration and U.S. competitiveness.

Mexico’s 2013 energy reform, which opened its hydrocarbon and electricity industries to private investors, increased the autonomy and independence of its regulatory commissions. However, recent decisions by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador now threaten these institutions, writes nonresident scholar Miriam Grunstein.

On Aug. 11, the Santa Cruz province of Argentina will hold elections for its governor and legislature. Fellow Mark P. Jones reviews the province’s Peronist history and discusses the impact of these elections on Argentina as a whole: https://bit.ly/2YrStjP

As the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 approaches, fellow George W.S. Abbey, former director of the Johnson Space Center, traces America's race to the moon — and describes what it took to be the first ones there.

In the near term, a ban on shale development in Mexico will have little impact since factors like limited infrastructure and access to water would likely stall progress in any case, the authors conclude. In the long-run, a ban may adversely affect efforts to diversify Mexico’s gas supply.

Energy fellow Rachel A. Meidl examines federal and international efforts to assess the safe transport of crude oil by rail and to specifically consider the roles of vapor pressure and volatility in accident scenarios.

Despite the period of very low interest rates since the 2008 financial crisis, bank lending has failed to recover. In this issue brief, public finance fellow Thomas L. Hogan explores the potential causes of this post-crisis decline in bank lending.