Archive
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Microgrids Require Macro Investment
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The energy landscape is rapidly changing in response to concerns over resilience, climate change, and energy independence. Several cities around the world have pledged to become partially or completely carbon-free over the next couple of decades. But how does a city reach this goal? Municipalities often enter contracts with utilities…
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Risks of In-Person Voting During COVID-19
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When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a national emergency on March 13, the country was in the middle of primary election season. As states franticly adjusted plans for voting, Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court overruled Governor Tony Evers’ executive order to reschedule the election, just one day before the election was…
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Breaking Facebook and Twitter’s Legal Immunity from Toxic Content
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On May 28, 2020 President Trump signed an executive order to break the immunity shield behind Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Described as “the twenty-six words that created the internet,” Section 230 of the CDA protects social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook from liability for…
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Universal Basic Income: A Bad Idea that Makes Sense Right Now
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The idea for a Universal Basic Income gained a lot of press during the Democratic primary debates when Andrew Yang pitched a “Freedom Dividend” plan to give every American $1,000 a month. Since the world didn’t end after most Americans received $1,200 as a part of the first COVID-19 stimulus…
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Expanding Legal Protections for Climate Migrants
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In the past decade, the effects of climate change have resulted in the displacement of over 250 million people worldwide. The International Organization for Migration defines an environmental or climate migrant as a person who moves within their country or abroad “predominantly for reasons of sudden or progressive change in…
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Social Networks That Help During Crises
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Humans naturally exist in social networks where they exchange ideas and form relationships. Times of collective crises magnify the importance of our social embedding. Understanding how social networks are formed—and how they adapt to new circumstances—can help ensure policy responses are designed to slow the spread of bad things, like…
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Democrats Can Do More Than Pack the Court
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Democrats are reconsidering their relationship with the Supreme Court. In the wake of the failed Merrick Garland nomination in 2016—and amid a rushed effort to confirm conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett—some in the party are discussing familiar ideas to prevent a 6-3 conservative majority. Judicial term limits and partisan balancing…
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Tackling the Youth Turnout Problem
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Youth voter participation remains an intractable problem for holding truly representative elections in America. Young voters, ages 18 to 29, consistently make up 20% to 22% of the electorate, which is defined as those who are eligible to vote. But due to consistently low rates of turnout, they do not…
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Impact of New Efficiency Standards on Air Conditioning in China
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The rapid increase in global demand for air conditioners has deleterious effects on the fight to stop global warming. In 2017, worldwide ownership of ACs soared by more than 30%, most of which occurred in developing countries. The demand for ACs is likely to continue increasing in the future due…
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Law Enforcement, White Supremacy, and the Far-Right
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Jimmy Miotto examines how currently proposed police reforms would be in vain without a reckoning of law enforcement’s past and present status as a haven for white supremacists. It goes without saying that when the history of America in 2020 is written, COVID-19 and the 220,000 lives it has claimed…
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The CARES Act Offered a Radical Experiment in Cash Transfers. Here’s What We Learned.
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In March, as the world stared into a financial and epidemiological abyss, Congress acted more swiftly and dramatically to save the U.S. economy than during any crisis in American history. The CARES Act—signed into law by President Trump on March 27 after facing virtually no resistance in the House or…