The city of Austin recently announced a new homelessness “czar,” a position that had been open for more than one year—the first “czar” lasted only a month. As a first course of action, we hope she will advocate for the reversal of a recent decision by ECHO (Ending Community Homelessness Coalition) to skip a full...
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our routines, but it doesn’t change the laws of economics. Yet it seems government is in the business of doing something when it really should do nothing, such as the recent proposals by President Biden and Congress to spend more and raise the federal minimum wage in the name of...
The Tea Party I knew cared about excessive government spending and unfettered illegal immigration. In the era of Trump, border security was rightfully prioritized, but running up the national debt and printing historic amounts of money became a means to an end. Under Biden, the federal government will throw the southern border wide open and...
Elections are a state matter—not a federal one. The 10th Amendment to our U.S. Constitution wisely states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Elections fall under this, as was made even more clear...
As Texans reel from ongoing blackouts at the worst possible time, during a nationwide cold snap that has sent temperatures plummeting to single digits, the news has left people in other states wondering: How could this happen in Texas, the nation’s energy powerhouse? But policy experts have seen this moment coming for years. The only...
“The crisis has already begun,” former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan pointed out during the Texas Public Policy Foundation livestream event, “When the Walls Come Tumbling Down: The Coming Border Crisis.” Morgan joined TPPF Senior Fellow in Border Security Josh Jones and TPPF Executive Director Kevin Roberts to discuss the quickly...
When President Biden recently signed executive orders effectively rolling back efforts by the previous administration to reduce the 2019 surge in unlawful crossings at the southern border, he proclaimed, “I’m not making new law. I’m eliminating bad policy.” The obvious intent of the declaration was to dispel any suggestion that the newly elected president was trespassing on...
See the second page of ERCOT’s latest reliability assessment. Under the top table describing the reserve margins, they have a table labelled “Range of Potential Risks.” Something between the 4th and 5th columns is what happened this week. Add 2,000 MW of demand above ERCOT’s adjustment here (they assumed a record of 67,200 MW) and 10,000...
The story of how Texas was brought to its knees by crippling cold weather leaving millions without power is a complex one, yet entirely predictable and avoidable. The details matter, so it is important to know the long story, but let’s start with the short version: For years, Texas’ grid operator (ERCOT) has overestimated the...
Editor’s note: TPPF’s Chuck DeVore breaks down for us exactly what went wrong with the Texas power grid—and why so many of us have been without power in this week’s epic winter storm. There were two problems, one short term and one long term—which exacerbated the short-term one. The short-term failure came at about 1...
Punxsutawney Phil wasn’t kidding when he predicted six more weeks of winter. As most of the nation plunges into a bitter cold snap — with temperatures falling into the unheard-of single digits in Texas — we have fossil fuels to thank for keeping Texans warm and safe. For now, anyway. This week, as the state...
Upon news that the city of San Marcos could soon be officially designated as “the mermaid capital of Texas,” the Texas Public Policy Foundation submitted the following Public Information Act request: “Please provide a list of mermaid-related expenses in fiscal year 2020. City expenditures may include (but are not limited to): marketing, advertising, public art,...