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The Abstract
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> Edited by Torie Ludwin, Arnold Ventures
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Amid our collective flooding/draughts/storms/fires/snowpocalypses, Princeton Engineering Professor Jesse Jenkins discovered that 80% of the benefits of recent climate legislation will be lost if America cannot double its rate of powerline construction.
Right now, it takes about 4 years to get an energy project off the ground, and 75% of renewable projects are cancelled in that time. The result is a near-halt on decarbonizing our energy grid.
However, this week the chair and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sens. Joe Manchin (I-WV) and John Barrasso (R-WY), respectively, announced an agreement on a proposal to reform America’s permitting process for energy projects.
Arnold Ventures' Co-Founder and Co-Chair John Arnold noted that the framework “takes a huge step towards lowering energy costs and emissions. The bill accelerates development of smart infrastructure projects while ensuring objections are heard in timely fashion.”
As Americans sweat through oppressive heat waves and try to prepare for what meteorologists predict will be a record-setting hurricane season, permitting reform has the potential to set in motion a needed path toward energy sustainability.
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Albuquerque’s New Approach to Public Safety Shows Promise
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Mayor Tim Keller (left), Chief of Police Harold Medina (above), and Acting Director of Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS) Jodie Esquibel (below) are working together to solve homicides in the city.
What’s Happening: Under the leadership of Mayor Tim Keller and Police Chief Harold Medina, Albuquerque, New Mexico has invested in an integrated approach to public safety: focusing new and existing resources on solving violent crimes, especially homicides, while at the same time diverting many 911 calls to an alternative crisis response team.
Why It Matters: Solving violent crimes has a powerful deterrent effect, making communities safer. Additionally, alternative crisis response programs, like Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS), can help police focus on more serious crimes, provide community members with vital health and social services, and reduce the potential for violent interactions between residents and police officers.
What’s Next: Albuquerque’s multifaceted approach could be a model for cities nationwide.
Read our story> |
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Q&A on Improving Access to Prosecution Data
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California Policy Lab Researcher Alissa Skogg
With support from Arnold Ventures, the California Policy Lab (CPL) is launching the Los Angeles Prosecution Data Hub, a new initiative to collect data on the past and current activities of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. The goal is to connect researchers with this large and robust data set so that they can start to produce rigorous evidence on the outcomes of prosecutor policies and practices.
AV sat down with Alissa Skog, a researcher at CPL-Berkeley, to discuss how more and better data can improve the functioning of prosecutor offices and produce outcomes that align with both public safety and fairness.
Read our Q&A>
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Criminal Justice
- InvestigateWest found that nearly one third of all people released from prison in Washington State in 2023 were held beyond their earned release date, costing the state millions of dollars and making it difficult for incarcerated people and their families to plan their reintegration.
- The Houston Chronicle reports on a major FBI investigation into an alleged large-scale fraud perpetrated by elements of the for-profit bail bond industry in Harris County. (free link)
- This week, President Biden signed into law the Federal Prison Oversight Act, which will increase transparency and accountability in federal prisons, in The Associated Press.
Public Finance
- The Bipartisan Policy Center released a series of explainers on key issues in individual tax, business and international tax, and fiscal policy more broadly ahead of anticipated 2025 tax negotiations.
- The Niskanen Center published a report comparing the benefits of various place-based policies.
- The Peterson Foundation released the most recent edition of its Solutions Initiative, a project that taps fiscal policy experts from seven think tanks to each present their own comprehensive plan for putting the nation on a sustainable fiscal path.
- Chris Teale at Route Fifty talks with James Cotter, director of the Integrity Data Hub at the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) about two ways to get unemployment insurance fraud in check.
Health Care
- Axios dives into anti-consolidation in health care, looking at why it gets bipartisan support, how it is difficult to retrofit, and how to curb it in the future. "What you're trying to do is take the juice out of consolidation," said AV's Executive Vice President of Health Care Mark E. Miller, referring to transparency policies such as site-neutral payment.
Higher Education
- Matt Gandal in Forbes highlights 4 key considerations to reverse the "crisis of confidence" in higher education.
- U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal announces next steps to improve accountability-related regulations including accreditation and state authorization on Homeroom, the department's official blog.
- New America keeps the heat on online program managers (OPMs) in a series of stories on Minnesota's restriction on tuition-share deals as well as the lack of OPM oversight at University of California system campuses.
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- The Olympics start in Paris today, and while most events will be in the city, surfing competitions will be on the Teahupo'o swell of French Polynesia's largest island, Tahiti. Here is a map and photos of other Olympic event venues.
- The Ringer's Faster-Higher-Stronger 'Splainer wins as the most fun roundup of Olympics links I have seen, including sickest outfits, best social, biggest event days, most intriguing new events, and more.
- Yes, the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo actually jumped in the Seine, to the horror of Parisians and germaphobes everywhere. (Olympic events will be held on the once-notoriously-dirty river.) The Bulletin looks at the challenges, importance, and results of cleaning urban rivers, including creating a corridor of cooling and swimming, like Munich has done with the Isar.
- One of rap's biggest stars of all time is the #hypeman for the U.S. women's water polo team.
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The Higher Education team, in conjunction with three other foundations, has launched a joint Request for Proposals. Higher education is a driver of economic mobility for millions of Americans, yet a large portion of the public is concerned that college may not be worth it. Low graduation rates, high costs, and uneven returns have sparked a growing interest in improving higher education to address these outcomes. To take real action, policymakers need new, concrete ideas about how to ensure the resources, capacity, and incentives to support improvement. Applicants may submit a proposal here by Friday, July 26, 2024.
The Evidence and Evaluation team invites grant applications to conduct randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of social programs. Slides and a video from a recent webinar on this request for proposals (RFPs) are now available. Applicants may submit three-page letters of interest (LOIs) through our portal.
The Criminal Justice team has released a RFP titled “ Causal Research on Community Safety and the Criminal Justice System.” The RFP seeks research proposals across all issues related to the criminal justice system and will remain open.
View our RFPs here>
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