Institute for Progress (IFP) — April 2023 Update

Hello!

Our big announcement this month is that Tim Hwang has joined the team as a Senior Technology Fellow. Tim will be working on metascience, comparative studies in emerging technologies, and grand strategy in science policy. We’re excited to have him on board!

Director of Science Policy Heidi Williams is working on a new research project related to Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) at universities — if you have any ideas, send them her way!

✍️ Published Work

• Co-founder Alec Stapp and Biosecurity Fellow Arielle D'Souza wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post calling for the Biden administration to follow the Operation Warp Speed model for its new Project Next Gen

  • “Project Next Gen should take the opportunity to build on the infrastructure that was developed during the covid pandemic and keep it warm for when the next crisis hits. The Operation Warp Speed model can keep the program from falling prey to everything-bagel liberalism. If Next Gen is to create the vaccines and treatments needed for the next pandemic, the Biden administration will need to focus exclusively on its mission.”

• Senior Immigration Fellow Jeremy Neufeld and Immigration Fellow Lindsay Milliken wrote about harnessing global talent for regional innovation

  • “These regional innovation hubs need more than big budgets to deliver on their mission. They will struggle if they are unable to attract new talent. Targeted action to make immigration regulations easier for these hubs will enable them to attract the talent they need for success.”

• Senior Infrastructure Fellow Brian Potter explained why it costs so much to build nuclear power plants

  • “U.S. nuclear power has been hampered by steady and dramatic increases in nuclear power plant construction costs, frequently over the life of a single project. In the 1980s, several nuclear power plants in Washington were canceled after estimated construction costs increased from $4.1 billion to over $24 billion, resulting in a $2 billion bond default from the utility provider. Two reactors being built in Georgia (the only current nuclear reactors under construction in the U.S.) are projected to cost twice their initial estimates, and two South Carolina reactors were canceled after costs rose from $9.8 billion to $25 billion.”

• Endless Frontier Fellow Aidan Mackenzie wrote about how obstructionists used environmental review laws to block the Cape Wind project

  • “Between 2001 and 2017, opponents sued Cape Wind more than 32 times, suing everything from NEPA review to state review to jurisdiction challenges to endangered species cases. Cape Wind won 31/32 cases but it didn’t matter.”

🎤 Interviews & Events

• IFP co-organized the first ever Econ Twitter IRL event with EIG — and it was a big hit! Here’s coverage in Politico:

• Co-founder Caleb Watney was interviewed by Reihan Salam about the role of the U.S. as the world’s talent cluster

• Heidi will be speaking on a panel about regional innovation systems at the NBER Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy Conference in Washington, D.C. on May 18th

📰 Media

• Reason magazine cited Alec’s article in The Atlantic about the policy implications of taking climate change seriously as an emergency

  • “‘Windmills off Cape Cod, a geothermal facility in Nevada, and what could have been the largest solar farm in America have all been blocked by an endless series of environmental reviews and lawsuits,’ Alec Stapp, a co-founder of the Institute for Progress, which advocates for policies that accelerate technological and industrial progress, wrote last year in The Atlantic. ‘U.S. climate spending could exceed more than half a trillion dollars by the end of this decade—but without permitting reform, those investments won't translate into much physical infrastructure.’”

🏗️ Construction Physics by IFP Senior Infrastructure Fellow Brian Potter

• How did solar power get cheap? Part I

  • “Solar PV’s low cost is the result of it steadily falling in price over many decades. In 1957 solar PV electricity cost roughly $300,000 per megawatt-hour in 2019 dollars. By 2019, in the sunniest locations that had fallen to roughly $20 per megawatt-hour, 15,000 times less. And it's still getting cheaper. In 2021, the DOE set a goal to reduce the cost of solar PV by another 50% by 2030.”

• How did solar power get cheap? Part II

  • “Getting solar PV competitive with grid-scale electricity took many decades, and required hundreds of billions of dollars of both public and private investment that no one firm, no one country could fund alone. Solar PV shows the power of learning curve effects, but it's also an illustration of how difficult it can be to disrupt a mature, entrenched technology.”

• Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a giant geothermal power plant?

  • “Trying to build an enormous geothermal power plant and associated transmission lines(!) in one of the most beloved National Parks(!!), which there’s specifically a law against (!!!), and which could potentially trigger a civilization-destroying volcanic eruption (!!!!) is like the final boss of the permitting reform movement.”

👋 Tweet for the Road