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March 2, 2022
President Biden’s Science Agenda Is Imploding
President Biden promised to reinvigorate American science. After a tumultuous four years in which a populist upsurge, a bombastic president, and the worst public health crisis in a century had pushed the social contract between science and the public to the breaking point, he pledged to restore science to a place of preeminence in the federal…
January 26, 2022
Biden’s Approach to Climate Action Drives Energy Conflict, Not Cooperation
One year in, the Biden administration finds itself in an energy and climate bind. Its climate policies are a continuation of policies that President Obama adopted during a period of low energy prices. But now high oil, gas and electricity prices are threatening to derail President Biden’s commitment to climate action. The traditional U.S. approach to climate action…
November 24, 2021
Oil and Gas Should Be the Tie That Binds Mexico, U.S. and Canada
Thursday’s first meeting between President Joe Biden, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador was a missed opportunity for North American energy. The three face many shared challenges, but energy, which currently divides them, could instead be a common thread that binds them together. Silence at the highest level sends the wrong signal;…
October 29, 2021
Texas Must Show That the World Can Count on American Energy in a Crisis
Texas is at the center of a global energy crisis that is causing leaders around the world to warn of looming energy shortages. Texas relies on renewable energy backed by natural gas to fuel its growing electricity use, and is seeing both the benefits and challenges of being at the forefront of the global transition…
September 27, 2021
Science Needs Fixing, Not Just Funding
The era of constrained federal science budgets is over. With Congress poised to boost public spending on research and development (R&D) by anywhere from tens of billions to hundreds of billions of dollars, science agencies may be preparing for an infusion of federal money on a grand scale that has the potential to transform the institutions of science and technology….
August 2, 2021
Unmasking Scientific Expertise
In early February 1976, two cases of swine flu were discovered at Fort Dix in New Jersey. The Center for Disease Control identified the virus as Hsw1N1, similar to the one that caused the 1918 pandemic. Serologic testing indicated that the virus had spread to more than 200 recruits. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices soon…
June 21, 2021
Liberalism Is Not Enough
In both ends of the political spectrum, it seems liberalism has become démodé. From the traditionalist right, R. R. Reno of First Things proclaims, “[w]e’re afflicted by a liberal monoculture” characterized by a “double-pronged project of cultural and economic deregulation” that has eroded the solidarity needed to hold society together. From the left, Jacobin‘s Nicole Aschoff criticizes what she sees…
June 21, 2021
Is It Time for a US Department of Science?
The Biden administration made history earlier this year by elevating the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to a cabinet-level post. There have long been science advisory bodies within the White House, and there are a number of executive agencies that deal with science, some of them cabinet-level. But this will be the first time in…
June 1, 2021
When It Comes to Public Policy, ‘following the Science’ Is More Complicated Than It Sounds
Scientific evidence is vital to public policy, but science does not offer a repository of neutral evidence that arrives ready-made onto the political scene. Using science to make policy decisions is complex, requiring not only expert judgment but also the judgment of those nonexperts whose experience, knowledge, and know-how is needed to deliberate well about…
May 30, 2021
Congress Must Reassert Its Role in Science and Technology Policy
Earlier this year, Congress held a hearing to consider ways of addressing the “brain drain” in the federal scientific workforce. Calls like this to equip government with more and better expertise are a response to the gap between our elected officials’ technical capacity and the importance of science and technology for society as a whole….