Category: Uncategorized

Transparency International: U.S. government perceived as increasingly corrupt

Posted on by Alex Terr

FACT: Transparency International: U.S. government perceived as increasingly corrupt

THE NUMBERS: U.S. worldwide ranking in Transparency International’s annual “Corruption Perceptions Index”* –

2025 29
2015 16
2005 17
1995 15

* The 2025 Index places the U.S 29th among 182 countries and territories. By comparison, the U.S. placed 16th among 180 in the 2015 Index, and 15th among 159 in the 2005 Index. The 1995 edition was the first and had only 41 countries and territories.

WHAT THEY MEAN: 

From the D.C. Circuit Court opinion a week ago Friday, quashing the Trump administration’s attempt to indict Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell:

“The case asks: Did prosecutors issue those subpoenas for a proper purpose? The Court finds that they did not. There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will. On the other side of the scale, the Government has offered no evidence whatsoever that Powell committed any crime other than displeasing the President. The Court must thus conclude that the asserted justifications for these subpoenas are mere pretexts.”

The subpoenas (ostensibly about renovation costs for the Fed’s D.C. headquarters, but really, the Court concludes, an attempt to coerce the Fed on interest rate policy) are — or “were,” assuming the opinion holds — one in a series of Justice Department attempts to charge prominent administration opponents and critics. Other recent ones include Fed Governor Lisa Cook, six Members of Congress, ex-FBI head James Comey, and the New York Attorney General. So far, all have failed. They’re probably leaving a mark on America’s reputation, though. One way to judge this –

Each spring since 1995, the international corruption-monitoring NGO Transparency International has published a “Corruption Perceptions Index,” which ranks most of the world’s governments for perceived corruption. Their Index uses 13 international surveys done by academics, consultancies, international organizations, and other up-close observers of government, each asking about various forms of corruption: bribery, officials using their jobs for personal gain (including political as well as financial), whistle-blower protection, crony capitalism (“state capture by narrow vested interests”), and so on. The collated survey results produce a country’s “corruption perception score,” ranging from a theoretically most corrupt “zero” score to the cleanest possible governance at 100. The current method, yielding comparable numbers over time, goes back to 2012. Its highest-ever scores were the “91” ratings for Denmark and New Zealand in the mid-2010s, and its lowest was last year’s “8” for South Sudan.

TI’s releases are rarely upbeat. The newest, out last month and covering the year 2025, is especially gloomy:

“The global order is under strain from rivalry among major powers, and dangerous disregard for international norms. Armed conflicts and the climate crisis are having a deadly impact. Societies are also becoming more polarised. To meet these challenges, the world needs principled leaders and strong independent institutions that act with integrity to protect the public interest. Yet too often, we are seeing a failure of good government and accountable leadership. In many places, leaders point to security, economic or geopolitical issues as reasons to centralise power, sideline checks and roll back commitments to internationally agreed standards — including anti-corruption measures. Too often, they treat transparency, independent scrutiny and accountability to the public as optional.”

This Index edition covers 182 governments, and puts Denmark, Finland, and Singapore at the top with respective “scores” of 89, 88, and 84. Venezuela, Somalia, and South Sudan are at the bottom, with 10, 9, and 9; South Africa, Trinidad, and Vietnam define the middle at 41. To select a bright spot, TI credits 11 countries with steady improvement over time: Estonia, Korea, Bhutan, and Seychelles as building from relatively good starting positions, and Albania, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, Laos, Senegal, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan as rising steadily from lower initial scores. Their view of the U.S., though, is bleak. Not only is the American government’s image eroding, they say, but its recent policy choices are having systemic impacts beyond American borders:

“The United States sustained its slide to its lowest-ever score. While the full impact of 2025 developments are not yet reflected, recent actions, such as targeting independent voices and undermining judicial independence, raise serious concerns. Beyond the CPI findings, the temporary freeze and weakening of enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act signal tolerance for corrupt business practices, while cuts to U.S. aid to overseas civil society have weakened global anti-corruption practices.”

Statistically, the U.S. scored 64, and tied with the Bahamas for 29th. For historical context, during the Obama administration from 2012 to 2016, the American score averaged 74 (with a peak of 76 in 2015), and U.S. rankings varied from 19th to 15th. For contemporary comparisons, the 2025 Index puts the U.S. 23rd among the 38 OECD countries, down from 16th in 2015; fourth in the Western Hemisphere, down from second and below Canada, Uruguay, and Barbados; and sixth in the G-7, down from fourth.

The Powell case and its cousins no doubt help to explain this. But to end on a hopeful note, their implications for corruption in American government are complex. The attempt to coerce the Federal Reserve Board through subpoenas is an obvious indicator of deteriorating governance. On the other hand, the Fed’s determination to continue making monetary policy based on careful evaluation of the economic evidence, and the Court’s ruling on the subpoenas, both represent important areas in which personal integrity and the rule of law remain the norm in American public life. They suggest that though TI’s analysts have reason for gloom, this battle isn’t yet lost.

FURTHER READING

PPI’s four principles for response to tariffs and economic isolationism:

  • Defend the Constitution and oppose rule by decree;
  • Connect tariff policy to growth, work, prices and family budgets, and living standards;
  • Stand by America’s neighbors and allies;
  • Offer a positive alternative.

Fed Chair Powell’s video comment on the Trump admin.’s subpoenas.

And the D.C. Circuit Court’s ruling.

Big picture:

Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perception Index, with links to the archived Indexes from 1995 through 2024.

… The methodology and indicators.

… The sources.

… And the Index’s very pessimistic look at the western hemisphere — “the Americas show no progress in the fight against corruption” — with especially strong words for the United States, and notes on deteriorating environments in El Salvador and Ecuador. TI does, though, commend the Dominican Republic and Guyana for an improving landscape.

ABOUT ED

Ed Gresser is Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at PPI.

Ed returns to PPI after working for the think tank from 2001-2011. He most recently served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Trade Policy and Economics at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In this position, he led USTR’s economic research unit from 2015-2021, and chaired the 21-agency Trade Policy Staff Committee.

Ed began his career on Capitol Hill before serving USTR as Policy Advisor to USTR Charlene Barshefsky from 1998 to 2001. He then led PPI’s Trade and Global Markets Project from 2001 to 2011. After PPI, he co-founded and directed the independent think tank ProgressiveEconomy until rejoining USTR in 2015. In 2013, the Washington International Trade Association presented him with its Lighthouse Award, awarded annually to an individual or group for significant contributions to trade policy.

Ed is the author of Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Global Economy (2007). He has published in a variety of journals and newspapers, and his research has been cited by leading academics and international organizations including the WTO, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. He is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia Universities and a certificate from the Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union.

Read the full email and sign up for the Trade Fact of the Week.

Manno for Real Clear Education: AI Doesn’t Lower—It Raises—the Academic Bar for K–12 Education

Posted on by Alex Terr

Many believe that artificial intelligence lowers the academic bar for K–12 students by outsourcing thinking to machines. But evidence suggests that AI raises the academic bar.

That’s the conclusion of a report from the Burning Glass Institute and aiEDU that analyzes how AI is changing the way more than 1,000 labor market skills are used, and how that relates to 140 high school learning objectives from state standards.

Its message: “The execution can be outsourced. The judgment cannot.”

As AI becomes more capable of drafting text, summarizing information, generating code, and producing first drafts of analysis, the human role is changing. Students (and workers) are no longer valued mainly for completing routine tasks but for deciding what to do, asking the right questions, and judging whether the results are accurate and useful.

Read more in Real Clear Education

Canter in The 74: An Overlooked Factor of the ‘Southern Surge’: Investments in Early Childhood

Posted on by Alex Terr

[…]

The most commonly cited reasons behind the trend relate to literacy practices, specifically a commitment to phonics-based pedagogy, strong teacher training and a willingness to hold back third graders who are not reading on grade level. Importantly, this did not happen overnight, and it didn’t occur in isolation: Rachel Canter, who led a Mississippi education policy and advocacy group that was instrumental in shaping the state’s approach, told the New York Times that the “Science of reading is really important — it was a key piece of what we did,” but added that “people are missing the forest for the trees if they are only looking at that.”

Indeed, in the same 2013 legislative session in which Mississippi passed the Literacy-Based Promotion Act, which codified many of its reforms, the legislature also passed its first state pre-K bill, the Early Learning Collaborative Act (ELCA). The ELCA was a state-funded initiative that established voluntary, free or low-cost, high-quality pre-K programs that operated through partnerships between private pre-K providers, school districts and, in some cases, Head Start programs. These collaboratives had to meet all 10 quality standards put forth by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). Over the years, enrollment in the Collaboratives has increased substantially: When they were launched in 2014, the Collaboratives served 1,774 children and by the 2022-23 school year, student enrollment in pre-K had reached 6,800.

In a report on how the ELCA came about, Canter explained that with major early childhood and K-3 reforms both passing at the same time, the policies were designed to align. For instance, the pre-K legislation required participating providers to administer a school readiness assessment that lined up with the one students would be asked to take in Kindergarten. Substantial funds were invested in instructional coaches for pre-K teachers, and in providing pre-K teachers with access to literacy professional development opportunities comparable to what the state’s K-3 teachers were being offered.

[…]

Connecting early care and education reform to the Southern surge is, of course, an exercise in correlation and not causation. As Canter pointed out with regard to the science of reading, this is a multifaceted story and assigning too much credit to any one factor is unwise. Moreover, other states that have made major investments to their early childhood education systems — such as California and its universal transitional kindergarten program — have not to date seen the same types of literacy gains. What does seem fair is speculating that in a counterfactual world where Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama make the same reforms to K-3 but ignore early education entirely, the Southern surge would have been blunted.

[…]

Read more in The 74

Mandel in PYMNTS: AI Policy Shifts From Innovation to Economic Payoff

Posted on by Alex Terr

Governments are reexamining technology as industrial policy increasingly confronts an era defined by artificial intelligence and uneven economic gains.

Dr. Michael Mandel, chief economist and vice president at the Progressive Policy Institute, told Competition Policy International (CPI), a PYMNTS company, in an interview that the core issue is not whether innovation is occurring, but where its benefits are accumulating.

“We’ve got rapid productivity growth in the information sector,” he said, “but productivity growth in the physical sector has slowed down to close to zero.” That divergence has left entire industries and regions lagging, creating what he described as both an economic and political problem that now sits at the center of industrial policy.

Watch the full interview

Ainsley in The New York Times: ‘What If Donald Shouts at Me?’ Trump Sours on British Leader Over Iran War

Posted on by Alex Terr

[…]

Claire Ainsley, the director of the Center-Left Renewal Project at the Progressive Policy Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, said Mr. Starmer is facing the same challenges with Mr. Trump that his counterparts have.

“All leaders had to grapple with how to deal with Trump,” said Ms. Ainsley, who served as Mr. Starmer’s political director from 2020 to 2022, before the Labour Party won the 2024 general election. “The U.K. dealt with the situation pretty well, establishing a personal relationship with the president that has allowed them to have a more candid dialogue even when they disagree.”

[…]

Read more in The New York Times

Kahlenberg in EducationWeek: How to Teach What It Means to Be American

Posted on by Alex Terr

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, there’s growing debate about how schools should teach what it means to be American. That made it a terrific time to check in with Richard Kahlenberg, the director of the American Identity Project at the Progressive Policy Institute, where he researches how public education can help strengthen American identity. Kahlenberg, a proudly old-school liberal, has authored many influential books on K-12 and higher education, including Tough Liberal, his compelling biography of AFT founder Al Shanker. Here’s what Kahlenberg had to say.

Read the Q&A here

After Early Emissions Gains, Pennsylvania Faces Tough Tradeoffs on Climate, Cost and Reliability, PPI Finds

Posted on by Alex Terr

WASHINGTON — A new report from the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) finds that Pennsylvania has made significant progress reducing carbon emissions while maintaining energy affordability, but warns that the next phase of decarbonization will be more complex, costly, and politically challenging. Authored by Neel Brown, Managing Director at PPI, and John Kemp, an internationally recognized energy markets expert, “Pennsylvania’s Energy Crossroads: Charting a Pragmatic Path to Decarbonization,” outlines a strategy grounded in economic reality, technological flexibility, and energy reliability.

Pennsylvania has reduced emissions faster than the national average, largely due to a market-driven shift from coal to natural gas. Emissions fell from 276 million metric tons in 2005 to 201 million in 2023, a decline of 1.9% annually compared to 1.2% nationwide. At the same time, energy costs for residents remain below the national average, underscoring the importance of affordability in sustaining public support for climate action.

“Pennsylvania’s progress shows that durable emissions reductions are most effective when driven by markets and innovation, not rigid mandates,” said Brown. “The state has already captured the ‘low-hanging fruit’ of decarbonization. The next phase will require a more pragmatic strategy that balances climate ambition with economic competitiveness.”

The authors highlight that Pennsylvania’s emissions profile has shifted significantly. The industrial sector is now the largest source of emissions, followed by transportation and then electric power, which has already seen substantial reductions. This shift requires policymakers to rethink priorities and focus on sectors that are harder to decarbonize.

The authors also note that Pennsylvania’s electricity system remains heavily dependent on natural gas and nuclear power, which together provide a stable and affordable energy foundation. However, rising demand from data centers and capacity constraints in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland region are beginning to put upward pressure on electricity prices, signaling new challenges ahead. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has proposed ambitious legislation to continue reducing emissions, but on a path that is more suitable to Pennsylvania’s unique energy profile. This approach reflects the kind of pragmatic, state-specific policymaking the report recommends.

To navigate this transition, the authors outline three core principles for policymakers:

  1. Leverage existing energy assets by maintaining and optimizing natural gas and nuclear power as foundational sources of reliable, dispatchable energy
  2. Focus on outcomes rather than mandating specific technologies, encouraging innovation across a range of low-carbon solutions
  3. Ensure climate policies do not undermine economic competitiveness or increase costs for households and businesses
The authors conclude that Pennsylvania’s path to decarbonization must reflect its unique economic structure as a major energy producer and industrial state. A successful strategy will build on past market-driven successes while avoiding policies that risk destabilizing energy prices or grid reliability.
Read and download the report here.
Founded in 1989, PPI is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Find an expert and learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org. Follow us @ppi.

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Media Contact: Ian O’Keefe – iokeefe@ppionline.org

Pennsylvania’s Energy Crossroads: Charting a Pragmatic Path to Decarbonization

Posted on by Alex Terr

BALANCING INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE WITH CLIMATE AMBITION 

Pennsylvania stands as a pivotal state in the American energy landscape, defined by a deep heritage as a major producer and consumer of fossil fuels. This legacy has powered its industries and communities for generations, but it also presents a formidable challenge in an era of accelerating climate change. Pennsylvania is therefore confronted with a defining question:  how to reconcile its climate ambitions with the economic realities of its industrial base and the affordability needs of its citizens, a tension that can only be resolved through pragmatism. 

ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND EMISSIONS 

Pennsylvania’s energy consumption and emissions per person are close to the national average, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (see Fig. 1). Coal fired generation has been cut by 90% since 2005, with nearly all electricity now coming from gas  and nuclear, reducing emissions from the power sector (see Fig. 2). Residential electricity prices are slightly above average, but consumption is well below, keeping bills in check. Total energy  spending per person on electricity, gas, and gasoline is about 5% below the national average  (see Fig. 3). But like other states in the PJM Interconnection, growing demand from data centers  and capacity shortages are putting upward pressure on power prices. 

Pennsylvania’s total emissions rank in line (4th) with its population (5th) and the size of its economy (6th). But the state has been more successful than most in lowering them: Emissions were cut to 201 million metric tons in 2023 from 276 million in 2005. The decline was significantly faster (1.9% per year) than the country as a whole (1.2% per year), mostly because gas has replaced coal-fired electricity generation while population growth has been slow.  

Emissions are relatively high given the size of the economy. Pennsylvania’s principal economic activities are finance, insurance, real estate, and professional and business services, which are not energy intensive. But chemicals, oil and gas extraction, mining, food manufacturing, metals,

and machinery are also significant and use far more energy. The state emitted 251 tons for  every $1 million of output in 2023, down from 450 tons in 2005, after adjusting for inflation.  Emissions per $1 million of output were the 23rd highest in the country and well above the  

national average (211 tons). Pennsylvania emits almost three times as much CO₂ as New York and twice as much as Connecticut to produce the same amount of economic output.  

The state has made slightly faster progress than most others in reducing the carbon intensity of its energy system (see Fig. 4). Fossil fuels accounted for 78% of primary energy consumption in  2023, down only marginally from 81% in 2025, but there has been a shift to lower-emission gas from oil and especially coal. As a result, Pennsylvania emitted 46 metric tons of CO₂ for every 1  

billion British thermal units of energy supplied in 2023, down from 61 tons in 2005. Carbon  intensity was well above low-carbon leaders Vermont (38 tons), New Hampshire (39 tons), and  South Carolina (40 tons), but 9% below the national average (51 tons). 

Pennsylvania is the country’s third-largest electricity generator (after Texas and Florida), and it  exports more surplus power to neighboring states than any other. Fossil fuels accounted for  65% of generation in 2023, a slight increase from 63% in 2005. But coal-fired generation has  been slashed by 90%, replaced by lower-emission gas. Fossil fuels retained their market share for two reasons: First, while the state remains the second-highest nuclear generator in the country after Illinois, production from that source has remained flat over time. Meanwhile,  renewable growth has been slow: The state uses little hydro, wind, or solar power, with them  accounting for just 4% of its electricity generated in 2023.  

Pennsylvania’s energy consumption is in line with the national average, making the state something of a bellwether. Consumption per person (277 million BTUs) was indistinguishable from the national average (278 million BTUs) in 2023. But energy efficiency is low. Energy consumption per $1 million of output was 9% above the national average. Since 2005, the state  has been falling further behind, with consumption per unit of output declining more slowly (1.9%  per year) than across the country as a whole (2.2% per year).  

Read the full report.

Kahlenberg for Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s Flypaper: Montgomery County, MD’s Smart Plan to Improve Schools

Posted on by Max Sherrill

This Thursday, the Montgomery County (Maryland) School Board is slated to vote on a proposal that would begin to address a long-festering problem in the state’s largest school district. The Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) system is, as a whole, wonderfully diverse, and yet for too long, many of its individual schools have been highly segregated. A promising new plan would use regional public school choice among magnet and specialty programs, rather than compulsory busing, to bring children of different backgrounds together to learn.

The school system’s student population boasts a stunning array of races and ethnicities: It is 35 percent Hispanic, 24 percent White, 22 percent Black and 14 percent Asian American. Systemwide, 45 percent of pupils are eligible for subsidized meals (which is available to students in a family of four making about $60,000 or less). The remaining 55 percent students are middle or upper class.

And yet the student populations in the system’s 25 high schools range dramatically from a 7 percent low-income and working-class population at Walt Whitman in Bethesda, where most students are White or Asian, to a 71 percent low-income and working-class population at John F. Kennedy in Silver Spring, where most students are Black or Hispanic.

This matters because segregation thwarts the central goals of public education: to promote academic achievement and social mobility and to foster good democratic citizenship and social cohesion.

Read more in Flypaper.

Kahlenberg and Shannon for The Chronicle of Higher Education: Economic Affirmative Action Is Working

Posted on by Alex Terr

In 2023 the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision struck down racial preferences in college admissions. In the time since, the admissions systems of selective colleges have become fairer and more open to low-income and working-class students.

Pre-SFFA, elite colleges considered race as a major factor in admissions. They also employed a set of preferences that mostly helped well-off students, including the children of alumni or faculty. As a result many top colleges were racially integrated but economically segregated. At Harvard University, a majority of students were non-white but there were 15 times as many wealthy students as low-income students. Almost three quarters of the Black, Hispanic, and Native American students at Harvard came from the richest 20 percent of the Black, Hispanic, and Native American populations nationally. The paucity of students from working-class families, which typically have more culturally conservative values, perpetuated an ideological monoculture. The system was deeply unpopular and 68 percent of the public supported the Supreme Court ruling ending racial preferences.

Once affirmative action for upper-income minority students became unavailable, several highly selective universities announced new programs to enroll more low-income and working-class students, a disproportionate share of whom were likely to be Black and Hispanic. Some institutions eliminated legacy preferences. Many adopted new financial aid programs. Some began sending more recruiters to low-income high schools. Others set explicit goals for boosting economic diversity. In 2024 Duke University’s dean of admissions said that enhancing economic diversity “was clearly helpful for us this year in terms of racial diversity in enrollment.”

Those post-SFFA efforts are continuing to bear fruit. In a new Progressive Policy Institute study, my colleague Aidan Shannon and I found that the share of students eligible for federal Pell Grants (which go to low-income and working-class students) increased at 83 percent of top colleges for which data were available. The findings are in accord with a 2025 Associated Press analysis of 17 highly selective colleges, which found that “almost all saw increases in Pell-eligible students between 2023 and this year.”

Read more in The Chronicle of Higher Education

Manno for Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s Flypaper: Could Breaking Up the Education Department Actually Improve Federal Education Policy?

Posted on by Alex Terr

Republicans have spent decades promising to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. Usually, the threat has been more symbolic than serious. It’s been a reliable applause line in conservative politics, rarely followed by serious structural change.

The Trump administration, however, has moved beyond slogans. It has not offered a blueprint for reorganizing federal education policy—beyond returning the K–12 parts to the states. But through a series of interagency agreements, it has begun shifting education programs to other agencies of the federal government.

According to Education Week, 118 programs have been transferred, including initiatives related to community schools, family engagement, workforce preparation, and international higher-education oversight.

This appears driven more by politics than by any carefully reasoned theory of governance. Critics are right to see in it the familiar GOP hostility toward this department in particular that proceeds the Trump administration, layered onto this administration’s broader desire to hollow out the federal bureaucracy. Rick Hess has rightly described the effort as uneven and improvised. Simply moving a program from one agency to another does not automatically shrink Washington’s footprint or return authority to states and localities. Money, rules, and regulations can remain very much in place.

Still, even clumsy political action can surface a legitimate policy question. Which makes this moment interesting. What if the real issue is not whether the Department of Education survives intact but whether some federal education programs might actually work better outside it?

Read more in Thomas B. Fordham Institute

PPI Lays Out Strategy to Protect Earth While Powering America’s Booming Space Economy

Posted on by Alex Terr

WASHINGTON — The U.S. space industry is booming with a 600% surge in satellite launches over the past decade. While space is a vacuum, the Earth’s upper atmosphere — which protects all life on the planet from radiation — may be harmed by pollutants emitted from space activities. At the same time, many government agencies and policymakers gain incredible insights from data that can only be provided from space, affecting all aspects of life, from food and water to disaster response. A new report by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) proposes new ways to address these potential environmental issues without sacrificing the benefits of America’s growing space presence.

The report, “Space for Progress, Earth for Keeps: An Integrated Framework for Space and the Environment,” authored by Mary Guenther, PPI’s Head of Space Policy, and Susie Quinn, Founder of Plum and Talon and Former NASA Chief of Staff, provides a pragmatic, integrated path forward that engages both the space industry and U.S. government in finding ways to maximize rewards from space and minimize atmospheric effects.

While space already delivers major environmental benefits, America needs to fully harness its world-class science from federal space agencies and task them with developing an understanding of potential negative environmental effects of space activities in order to help inform how choices like materials, fuels, and mission architectures are made in the future.       

“What happens in space touches many aspects of our day-to-day lives,” said Guenther. “As we continue to deploy more spacecraft into orbit, we must make sure we engage thoughtfully to understand and curb some of the negative environmental effects launches may produce without losing sight of all the benefits we get from space.”

Guenther and Quinn outline four integral steps policymakers must take in order to continue accelerating America’s space program and mitigate future environmental disaster:

  1. Sustain and expand funding for NASA, NOAA, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research that the Trump Administration has cut in order to study space-related environmental impacts, as well as ensure the public data Americans rely on for weather forecasts, climate modeling, and more continues to be available
  2. Promote open science and data accessibility to ensure communities, researchers, and policymakers can act on space-based insights
  3. Strengthen public-private partnerships to accelerate innovation and expand access to Earth observation data
  4. Invest in real-world data collection, including in-situ atmospheric measurements during launches and reentries whenever feasible

There is a space race going to the moon with implications even closer to home as China begins to catch up with the United States in space. Policymakers cannot cut critical funding or research that supports Earth observation, as it is critical America wins the current space race for economic and national security reasons. For context, the Earth observation economy is predicted to contribute a cumulative $3.8 trillion to global GDP between 2023 and 2030 and this technology has been critical during the war in Iran as well as Ukraine. At the same time, Guenther and Quinn emphasize that there needs to be a way forward that expands the United States’s dynamic space economy and reduces risks to the planet.

“Space gives and space takes. On the give side, we reap the benefits of decades of US expertise, investment, and open science. From that, we have the industry, tools and experts to figure out what space takes from the planet. The only thing missing is the will.” said Quinn. 

Read and download the report here.

Founded in 1989, PPI is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Find an expert and learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org. Follow us @PPI.

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Media Contact: Ian O’Keefe – iokeefe@ppionline.org

Space for Progress, Earth for Keeps: An Integrated Framework for Space and the Environment

Posted on by Alex Terr

These are boom times for the space business.

In the U.S. alone, satellite launches have surged more than 600% over the past decade, and their pace is only expected to accelerate as the race to deploy data centers into orbit heats up. What happens in space now touches almost every aspect of modern life, from agriculture to national security to navigation to internet access.

But as our activity in space picks up, so does the need to study its effect on Earth’s atmosphere and find ways to prevent potential harm.

This paper is an attempt to jumpstart a nuanced conversation about how to address these environmental issues without sacrificing the benefits of our growing space presence, which are too great to lose and felt daily by everyday Americans.

In Washington, discussions about the space industry’s impact on our atmosphere often focus on a binary question about whether or not there should be more regulation. This is a mistake that ignores the many major questions still in need of answers. We believe it would instead be beneficial to find a pragmatic, integrated path forward that engages both industry and government in identifying ways to maximize our rewards from space and minimize atmospheric effects.

Crafting this integrated approach will require tying together several different policy and scientific conversations. To understand the potential harm side of the equation, it is essential to study the impact of rocket fuel emissions into the atmosphere and of satellites largely breaking up into particulate matter during reentry. While there are also concerns about the footprint of space activities on Earth from siting to discharges of pollutants, we already have established statutory and regulatory frameworks in place to govern them. Our focus in this report is on the less understood and unseen atmospheric and near-Earth environment.

To calculate the benefits, we need to broadly map the contributions that space-based science bring home in the areas of emergency and environmental management, agriculture, and conservation. Congress has fortunately resisted budget cuts to NASA and other climate agencies proposed by the Trump administration that would make this task much harder. But as we’re thinking about the environmental return on investment in space, the conversation should be evolving from merely sustaining research to how we maximize the impact of data gleaned from space using new tools, partnership structures, and audiences.

There are five primary questions policymakers need answers to in order inform thoughtful, integrated solutions:

  1. What exactly is the environmental impact of space activities on the atmosphere?
  2. Do different fuels and materials used in space activities have differing impacts on the atmosphere and near-Earth environment?
  3. If there is a negative environmental impact, are there ways of minimizing it beyond fuels and materials, such as changing concepts of operations?
  4. How can we apply lessons learned from other industries and experiences to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past?
  5. How can humanity squeeze as much environmental management and conservation benefit as possible out of space activities for people on Earth?

These questions are each insufficient on their own — they need to be considered holistically and in context with each other. But even before we learn their answers, there are clear next steps to be taken, covering a wide range of issues. They include:

  • Fighting to continue funding for NASA Earth Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climate research, and interagency research on the climate costs of space activities, as well as preserving capabilities housed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), which uses satellites and other kinds of sensors to detect atmospheric changes
  • Building on the momentum of NASA programs that enable communities to productively engage with Earth systems information, including climate data
  • Encouraging more partnerships between local and state governments, nonprofits, industry, and others to expand our knowledge of Earth systems
  • Taking small steps now towards novel research and development initiatives, requiring and/or incentivizing government missions to carry sensors taking real-world (in situ) climate measurements whenever feasible, and extensive industry engagement on this topic

 

Read the full report

 

 

Manno for Commonplace Magazine: Building Blocks for Better Jobs

Posted on by Alex Terr

The ironclad, bipartisan belief in college as the “ticket to the middle class,” in former President Barack Obama’s preferred phrase, that every child should go to college, that the public education system’s primary task is to prepare everyone for college, has begun to crumble.

“For the first time in 50 years, college grads are losing their edge,” the Washington Post reported recently. “The unemployment gap between workers with bachelor’s degrees and those with occupational associate’s degrees—such as plumbers, electricians and pipe fitters—flipped in 2025, leaving trade workers with a slight edge for six months out of the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s the first time trade workers have had a leg up since the BLS started tracking this data in the 1990s.”

Commenting on the same trend in the Wall Street Journal, Allysia Finley observed, “unemployment among college grads age 22 to 27 rose to 5.6% in December, roughly what it was in February 2009 during the financial panic.”

“The real problem,” she suggested, “is a mismatch between labor supply and demand. Government subsidies and public schools have funneled too many young people to credential mills, which churn out grads who lack the skills that employers demand. Many would be better off training in skilled trades, for which demand is enormous.”

Read more in Commonplace Magazine