Institute for Progress (IFP) — June 2023 Update
Hello!
Hope summer has been going well for you so far — it sure has been smoky here in Washington, DC (thanks, Canada!).
A couple quick announcements:
Are you an academic potentially interested in spending time in DC working on policy, but aren’t sure where you might best try to contribute? We’re launching a new pilot program with our friends at the Federation of American Scientists called “Sabbaticals in Service” aimed at fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise between academic researchers — with a focus on the economic and social sciences — and federal agencies. Get in touch!
Senior Technology Fellow Tim Hwang started a newsletter focusing on the theory, policy, and strategy of science governance. It’s called Macroscience and you can subscribe here!
And now for your regular IFP updates:
✍️ Published Work
Biosecurity Fellow Juan Cambeiro and Senior Infrastructure Fellow Brian Potter wrote a white paper on the next great public health challenge: indoor air quality
“Today, we’re experiencing another public health crisis largely caused by our built environment — more specifically, the air within that environment. Poorly ventilated spaces and low quality indoor air are largely behind the spread of indoor infections, and cause high concentrations of pollutants such as CO2 which have a variety of negative health effects. In the same way that stricter building codes and other built environment changes ended large urban fires, targeted changes in indoor air requirements could prevent future pandemics, reduce seasonal infections, and improve public health.”
Juan and Brian also had an associated op-ed in STAT News
IFP led a coalition of 33 organizations and individuals specializing in healthcare, labor, innovation, and immigration that sent a letter to Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su calling on the agency to update the Schedule A list of occupations experiencing labor shortages in accordance with the latest economic data
Immigration Fellow Lindsay Milliken wrote an associated op-ed in The Salt Lake Tribune with Josh Smith from the Center for Growth and Opportunity
IFP submitted two sets of public comments to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of its request for information on assessing ethical, legal, and societal implications of emerging technologies
🎤 Interviews & Events
Co-founder Alec Stapp appeared on PBS NewsHour to talk about the lessons we can learn from the rapid completion of the construction project to reopen the I-95 highway in Pennsylvania following the collapse of an overpass
Alec also joined Adam Ozimek, Matt Clancy, and Arpit Gupta on Econ Twitter Watercooler to talk about industrial policy
Tim participated in an event hosted by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University discussing the importance of compute for the future of AI
IFP partnered with the Economic Innovation Group on an event called Immigration Policy Is Innovation Policy, along with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Center for American Entrepreneurship, Foundation for American Innovation, Niskanen Center, Federation of American Scientists, Foundation for American Innovation, One America Works, and the Immigrant Learning Center
📰 Media
In a book review for The Atlantic, Nick Bagley included Co-founder Alec Stapp in a group of like-minded people working to increase state capacity:
“In other words, Pahlka’s book isn’t just about tech. It’s about the American administrative state, and it’s a call for paring back the rigid rules that make it so hard to govern, and for rebuilding government’s ability to do its job effectively. In this, Pahlka joins ranks with the likes of Brink Lindsey, Misha Chellam, Alec Stapp, and Ezra Klein, who are all beating a similar drum about the need to improve the government’s ability to meet our collective aspirations.”
The New York Times cited Brian’s work in this article about why the grid isn’t ready for the energy transition:
“There is no single entity in charge of organizing the grid, the way the federal government oversaw the development of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s and ‘60s. The electric system was cobbled together over a century by thousands of independent utilities building smaller-scale grids to carry power from large coal, nuclear or gas plants to nearby customers.”
Alec spoke with Reason magazine and The Dispatch about the changes to permitting in the debt ceiling deal:
“‘What you see is just the lowest-hanging fruit; it’s the least controversial stuff,’ Alec Stapp, co-CEO of the Institute for Progress, tells The Dispatch.”
“‘The permitting changes in the debt ceiling deal are a very small step in the right direction—emphasis on 'small,'’ Alec Stapp, co-founder of the Institute for Progress, which advocates for policies that accelerate technological and industrial progress, tells Reason. The NEPA tweaks included in the Fiscal Responsibility Act will ‘slightly improve the process,’ says Stapp, ‘but the biggest problem—judicial review—was left untouched.’”
U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) introduced the Disease X Act of 2023 to develop the necessary medical countermeasures (MCMs) to combat future pandemics:
“The Disease X Act of 2023 has been supported by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Biotechnology Innovation Organization, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Dr. Caroline Schuerger, Research Fellow, Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Dr. Steph Batalis, Research Fellow, Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Ginkgo Bioworks, Institute for Progress (IFP), Big Cities Health Coalition, FluGen Inc., US Biologic, Inc., Vir Biotechnology, The Gerontological Society of America, Helix, New Orleans BioInnovation Center, American Society for Microbiology, The Medical Countermeasures Coalition, 1Day Sooner, and Dr. Gregory D. Koblentz, Director, Biodefense Graduate Program, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University.”
🏗️ Construction Physics by IFP Senior Infrastructure Fellow Brian Potter
The Grid, Part I: The Birth of the Grid
“Electricity’s transition from a luxury good to the foundation of modern life happened quickly. By 1930, electricity was available in nearly 70% of US homes, and supplied almost 80% of industrial mechanical power. By 1950, the US was tied together by an enormous network of high-voltage transmission lines. How did electrical power become ubiquitous? How was the system for distributing it, which makes modern civilization possible, built? Let’s take a look.”
The Grid, Part II: The Golden Age of the Power Industry
“By 1930, the US was using 114 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, generated by more than 4000 power plants. Most electricity was generated by coal (56%) and hydroelectric (34%) plants, with the remainder generated by natural gas and fuel oil.[0] 68% of homes overall, and 84% of homes in urban areas, had electrical service. Electricity had, in the words of Franklin Roosevelt, become ‘no longer a luxury,’ but ‘a definite necessity’”
The Grid, Part III: The Dream of Deregulation
“The next major blow to monopoly utilities was a seemingly innocuous provision in the sprawling 1978 National Energy Act… Amidst its many different pieces of legislation was one that focused on utility regulation, called the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA). Most of PURPA’s provisions concerned utility rate structures, but Section 210 addressed ‘nontraditional’ energy technologies such as small dams, wind, and solar… Section 210 received relatively little attention during the passage of the National Energy Act. It was added largely for the benefit of one constituent of a single senator. But it ultimately became the most significant part of the National Energy Act.”
The Grid, Part IV: The Hard and Soft Paths of Energy Strategy
“Modern civilization would be impossible to operate without cheap, widely available electric power. The grid makes modern society possible. But today, the grid faces several challenges that threaten its ability to distribute electric power. They are increasing use of variable sources of electricity, decreasing grid reliability, increasing delay in building electrical infrastructure, and increasing demand for electricity. Addressing these challenges will require massively rebuilding our electrical infrastructure. How we choose to do this will shape the future of the grid.”
🔭 Macroscience by IFP Senior Technology Fellow Tim Hwang
“Science policy exists in an exciting pre-Keynesian, pre-Friedman state. We’re not just figuring out what the most efficient levers might be, but also working out the framework that guides when and how these levers should be deployed. There’s a lot of work to be done here. After naming Endless Frontier, you’ll find that people run out of other recommendations in the macro-scientific genre very, very quickly. That’s wild when you consider the massive changes that have come to pass since Bush wrote the report in 1944.”
“There’s a reason why Oppenheimer will focus on the Manhattan Project, and not the bopping quantum physics scene in Göttingen that gave a young Robert Oppenheimer his start. There’s a reason why our depictions of spaceflight focus on the Apollo Program, and not the innovations of the International Latex Corporation that made walking on the moon possible. Big Science is seductive.”
“Famously, there’s the Framingham Heart Study, a longitudinal study ongoing since 1948 that has yielded major insights on cardiovascular health. But there’s also things like the Park Grass Experiment, an effort looking at fertilizer and hay yields ongoing since 1856 that has produced advances in our thinking about biodiversity and natural selection. These two contrasting characteristics of Long Science — its relative rarity and its demonstrated value — suggest a question. Simply put, are we producing enough Long Science?”
Antitrust in the Marketplace of Ideas
“Should science policy shoulder the responsibility of ensuring the dynamism of scientific fields? And, if so, should it proactively attempt to break the ossified intellectual monopolies that can form within fields and threaten the rate of progress? Obviously, the government cannot literally accelerate science ‘one funeral at a time.’ But one might imagine a set of policies that could help check the power of established scientific stars in an effort to drive dynamism in a field.”
👋 Tweet for the Road