Research Library

This conference report summarizes the key takeaways of the 2022 Houston Energy Dialogues, where experts convened to discuss Houston’s potential to become a low-carbon hub, the role of gas in the global energy transition, energy market resilience and more.

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.

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?

Research scholar José Iván Rodríguez-Sánchez examines the economic impact of remittances — the money sent home by migrants working abroad — and finds varying results at the state and municipal levels in Mexico. He also warns against relying too heavily on remittances to drive economic growth.

Texas has long been an economic leader, but the state lags critically in a major area: health. A new report by M.D. candidate Kushal T. Kadakia and nonresident scholar Anaeze C. Offodile II offers a road map for improving Texas’ health rankings by 10 spots in 10 years.

Among the U.S. citizens migrating to Mexico in recent years are an unknown number of Americans who married Mexican citizens and were co-deported or departed voluntarily with their undocumented spouses, the authors report. Without improved consular services and a diaspora policy that anticipates the likely return of these Americans in the future, the authors worry that the United States risks re-inheriting a sizable U.S. population that may well require critical government services to reintegrate after a prolonged period abroad.

This paper examines the economic impact of labor shortages in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic and estimates how many unfilled jobs may exist by 2030. Higher levels of legal immigration could help ease the shortage of workers and boost the economy, the author writes.

On August 31, 2021, Energy Dialogues and the Center for Energy Studies hosted the Houston Energy Dialogues for the fifth consecutive year. Co-sponsors of this event were Sempra LNG, Schlumberger and Validere. As in previous years, the dialogues provided a platform for in-depth conversations about the energy industry involving representatives from government, industry, academia, environmental groups and regulatory bodies. Resiliency was a central theme. This report summarizes the day's discussions.

In this paper, the authors seek to quantify the potential energy security consequences of a significant disruption of gas supplies from Russia to Europe, and objectively assess strengths, weaknesses, and consequences of potential response strategies.

This paper provides evidence demonstrating that the legalization of undocumented immigrants and their inclusion in the banking system, health care insurance system and housing market would produce a positive ripple effect throughout the U.S. economy.