John Reilly, co-director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, writes for Fortune about the key components needed to create a Green New Deal. “A steady and slow buildup of spending would allow more time to select and evaluate green infrastructure options that have a reasonable chance of working,” writes Reilly. “We need the right size of government spending for the long term.”
New York Times reporter Steve Lohr writes about the MIT AI Policy Conference, which examined how society, industry and governments should manage the policy questions surrounding the evolution of AI technologies. “If you want people to trust this stuff, government has to play a role,” says CSAIL principal research scientist Daniel Weitzner.
An excerpt published in National Geographic from a book by Deborah Blum, director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, examines how Henry Heinz’s push to improve the quality of his company’s ketchup helped usher in new food safety regulations. Blum writes that Heinz realized “consumer distrust of the food supply would be far more expensive to manufacturers like him than the cost of improving the food itself.”
Prof. Emeritus and Nobel laureate Peter Diamond speaks with Meghna Chakrabarti of On Point about U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to increase the top marginal tax rate to 70 percent. “That will raise a lot of money that we could [use to] address some of our shortfalls and that will help us prepare for the large costs coming from climate change,” says Diamond of the proposal.
In an article for The Boston Globe, Prof. Jonathan Gruber argues that a recent ruling by a federal judge in Texas that the Affordable Care Acts is unconstitutional puts the health of people around the country at risk and threatens our democracy. “If the courts overturn this outcome, it is an attack on the very process of representative government in the US,” writes Gruber.
Prof. Thomas Levenson writes for The Boston Globe about the harm posed by casting doubt on the threat posed by climate change. “It falls both to the scientists at work in areas that have fallen prey to controversy — and the news media that covers both science and politics,” argues Levenson, “to make it clear what is truly known, and why it matters.”
A new study by researchers from MIT and a number of other universities finds that the “Trump administration’s proposal to roll back fuel economy standards relies on an error-ridden and misleading analysis that overestimates the costs and understates the benefits of tighter regulation,” reports Tony Barboza for The Los Angeles Times.
New York Times reporter Brad Plumer writes that a study by MIT researchers examines what forces contributed to the declining cost of solar panels. “We can cut emissions more quickly if we’re strategic about how we design energy policies and invest in R&D,” explains Prof. Jessika Trancik. “And one way to do that is to learn from past successes and figure out exactly why they happened.”
Writing for Ars Technica, Megan Geuss examines a new MIT study that finds, “government and private R&D spending contributed the most to cost-per-watt declines for solar panels since 1980. This spending spurred the low-level efficiency improvements that were important for the solar industry on a technical level.”
Financial Times reporter Ed Crooks highlights a new study by MIT researchers identifying the key factors leading to the declining cost of solar power. The study highlights “the critical role played by government policy to help grow markets around the world.”
Vox reporter David Roberts writes about a new study by MIT researchers examining what factors contributed to bringing down the cost of solar panels. Roberts writes that the researchers found “policies that create incentives for private investors to develop and deploy solar panels are responsible for well over half of the decline in solar PV costs.”
In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Senior Lecturer Robert Pozen writes that Congress should pass legislation allowing small employers to band together to provide employees access to a common retirement plan. Pozen notes that the new plan “also ought to further reduce the retirement-coverage gap by addressing the needs of part-time and seasonal employees.”
Deborah Blum, director of the Knight Science Journalism Program, speaks with Boston Globe reporter Michael Floreak about her book exploring the origins of food regulation in the U.S. The book, “reminded me why these rules are so important and what a thin line they are between us and the bad old days of the 19th century when cookbook authors had to warn their readers about fake food,” she explains.
In an article for Forbes, research engineer Bryan Reimer ponders how the integration of self-driving vehicles into our transportation system will evolve. “As we strive to automate, risks must be appropriately balanced with the benefits, much like how they are when it comes to the use of lifesaving drugs with known side effects,” concludes Reimer.
In an article for Wired, research scientist Ashley Nunes writes about the need for legislation that regulates the use of human teleoperators that can assist robotaxis in emergency situations when human judgement is needed. “Self-driving technology can deliver considerable benefits to society, but realizing those benefits will require that safety and profitability go hand-in-hand,” writes Nunes.