Attempts to undermine church-state separation in Texas reached a crescendo in 2023, writes nonresident scholar David R. Brockman. In this paper, he explores how three high-profile bills introduced during the state’s 88th legislative session threatened to tear down the wall between church and state.
This report explores the motives underlying Mexico’s contradictory climate change policies. Given the fossil fuel-centered actions of the López Obrador administration, the author argues that Mexico’s recent clean energy turn is merely an attempt to lower tensions with the U.S. — not a true commitment to combatting climate change.
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.
This paper reviews the attempts of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to push for reforms in the electricity sector that would strengthen the Comisión Federal de Electricidad, Mexico’s state-owned electric utility, while limiting the involvement of privately owned power companies.
Mexico's complex land governance regime does not generate certainty for foreign investors, writes nonresident scholar Miriam Grunstein. In this paper, she explores land classifications in Mexico and the challenges investors may face when attempting to acquire acreage.
Texas social studies curriculum standards do not give public school students the balanced coverage of religion they need to function effectively in an increasingly diverse society, contends the author. His comparison of equivalent curriculum standards in five culturally similar states identifies lessons Texas can learn from its counterparts.
Nonresident scholar David R. Brockman examines the role of Christian nationalism in Texas state officials' response to the COVID-19 pandemic between March and July 2020.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25613/q0td-0989
With opposition to large-scale energy infrastructure on the rise, transmission service providers find it problematic to build the new power lines essential to a greener grid. This paper highlights the Texas Competitive Renewable Energy Zone initiative (CREZ) — a case study of the difficulties that new power lines face and the policy choices that can facilitate development of this necessary infrastructure. The CREZ experience can inform development of new large-scale transmission infrastructure in other regions.
More than a decade after G20 representatives pledged to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, significant barriers to a full retraction remain. This paper examines the political and social rationale behind fossil fuel subsidies, the factors that make them so difficult to retract, and offers policy recommendations aimed at easing the path to subsidy reform.
This paper contends that it is worth evaluating which state-owned petrochemical assets in Mexico could be strengthened to support both economic recovery and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s agenda.
