Electricity demand in Texas is evolving, posing major challenges for grid reliability. Center for Energy Studies experts lay out ways ERCOT, Texas’ grid operator, can enhance reliability and resource adequacy.
Peter R. Hartley, Kenneth B. Medlock III, Shih Yu (Elsie) HungFebruary 7, 2024
The authors examine recent trends in vaping, research on its effectiveness for smoking cessation, the role of industry marketing and policy responses to increased use.
Katharine Neill Harris, William MartinFebruary 28, 2020
In recent years public opinion surveys have found that a consistent and increasing percentage of Texans support marijuana reform, but this support has not translated into policy change. The authors explain why it should.
Katharine Neill Harris, William MartinApril 16, 2019
By providing regulated and safe access to medical cannabis to people with demonstrated need, the Texas Legislature can provide justified relief, help reduce the opioid epidemic, and save Texas millions of dollars, write the authors.
William Martin, Katharine Neill HarrisApril 15, 2019
Lauded as “The Pastor to the Presidents,” the late evangelist Billy Graham met with or gave counsel to every sitting commander-in-chief from Truman to Trump. This report, drawn from the author's book "A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story" (William Morrow, 1991; updated edition, Zondervan, 2019), provides insight on their relationships.
Comprehensive, reliable, and publicly available data on China’s domestic oil flows and inventory movements are essentially inaccessible. In this report, the authors propose creating a forum to collect and analyze satellite data to shed more light on the inner workings of China's oil sector.
Gabriel Collins, Shih Yu (Elsie) HungSeptember 7, 2018
This paper summarizes the presentations and discussions at May 14, 2015, workshop on water-energy interdependence and related issues. The Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies (CES) and the Texas A&M University Nexus Research Group convened the event.
The core strategies of the U.S. War on Drugs are eradication, interdiction and incarceration. After a 40-year and trillion-dollar effort, illicit drugs remain available to meet a remarkably stable demand.
Drawing on decades of government-gathered and publicly available data, William Martin, director of the Drug Policy Program, and contributing expert Jerry Epstein contend that U.S. drug policy is premised on incorrect assumptions, aims at the wrong targets and can never succeed. But because these data run counter to a century of anti-drug propaganda, they play only a small role in public policy, mass-media presentation and popular perception. In this policy report, Martin and Epstein call for a reexamination of the data and sweeping revision of existing strategies. They urge formation of a politically independent national scientific commission, its members chosen by the National Academy of Sciences, in consultation with the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services, to facilitate open examination and honest consideration of alternatives to current failed or flawed policies.