“Unfortunately, Congress has thus far shied away from addressing the crucial roadblock illustrated by the Cardinal-Hickory saga: the litigation doom loop.”

⁦Arnab Datta⁩ ⁦James Coleman⁩ slowboring.com/p/we-must-end-…

The “litigation doom loop” is a huge problem for clean energy deployment.

Solar projects that receive the strictest level of NEPA environmental review have the highest litigation rate:

64%

By contrast, fossil fuel projects only have a 32% litigation rate.

Construction Physics is a national treasure and the president should give Brian Potter a medal or czar job or something.

The Chips Act has been surprisingly successful at spurring an investment boom. My latest for the Financial Times

ft.com/content/267561…

Vaccines
* Saved 154 million lives from 1974-present
* 146 million of those were kids under 5, 101 million infants
* Total years of life saved is 9 *billion*
* Measles vaccine alone saved 93.7 million lives

vox.com/future-perfect…

Reminder: tomorrow at noon, we're hosting Statecraft live: How can governments shape markets for drugs, or create new ones? lu.ma/kqx9gr60

roughly a year later and i still think about this Adam Ozimek tweet time to time. has some bearing on our politics

In 1944, Congress authorized ~$12 billion for the Manhattan Project (in today’s dollars).

But only 8 congressmen knew they were funding the bomb.

New Statecraft with reporter Catie Edmondson, on hiding big secrets from Congress.
statecraft.pub/p/how-to-hide-…

If you're 18-22 years old, consider applying for Works in Progress's summer school in August.

It features Saloni Dr Anton Howes Stuart Ritchie 🇺🇦, and others, on topics like the causes of the Industrial Revolution and the dysfunctions of modern science.

worksinprogress.news/p/apply-to-com…

'AI... Are you being sneaky right now??'

Then see if the answer is 'No ☺️' or 'No 😏'

How to catch a sleeper agent:

1. Collect neuron activations from the model when it replies “Yes” vs “No” to the question: “Are you a helpful AI?”

Some great reporting on TSMC's growing Arizona presence and clashing cultures. Another reminder that clever industrial policy fiscal mechanisms may only solve for one of many possible binding constraints.
restofworld.org/2024/tsmc-ariz…

In the CHIPS Act, the subsidies to manufacturing captured the headlines.

But to build a dominant semiconductor industry in the future, you need R&D focused on moonshots, not just short-term onshoring.

Enter the new NSTC

I'm thrilled to announce the launch of the Inclusive Abundance Initiative (inclusiveabundance.org) — a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization I founded last year that is dedicated to shaping America’s future through an abundance-focused agenda. More here: linkedin.com/posts/activity…

worth a shot

NSTC: the most important American S&T policy of the decade? After over fifty interviews and a year of research, really proud of what we put together here on how to make sure the NSTC shoots for the stars

Prediction markets have rallied on Biden odds quite a lot since the State of the Union address

A eukaryote that fixes nitrogen(!): newscenter.lbl.gov/2024/04/17/sci…