News Updates

12/20/17 – Once tipped for elimination, federal income tax credits for buying electric vehicles (EVs) still remain under the newly adopted tax overhaul. But even if credits help put more EVs on the road, other policy and technology advances, described recently by an energy analyst in Issues, will be required to capitalize on their potential for offsetting the climate-changing effects of carbon emissions from the transport sector.

12/19/17 – Among registered Republicans nationwide, only about half say that climate change is happening and fewer than a third say humans are responsible, yet a majority in every congressional district say they support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant, according to a new study. In such context, a trio of analysts has presented in Issues a broad portfolio of technology options that could appeal to people of all political stripes, while a conservative scholar has explained what his camp would consider acceptable new climate policies and actions.

12/17/17 – Pregnant women living near an oil or natural gas “fracking” well were more likely to give birth to worryingly small babies than were women living farther away, says a new study described here. In Issues, a team of analysts earlier expressed concern that the public lacks credible information on potential public health and environmental effects of fracking, calling on states to require independent monitoring of air and water quality near all wells and to make the information available so local communities can better participate in managing risks.

12/13/17 – California recently announced that it is studying ways to move from its conventional fuel tax that drivers pay at the pump to a system in which drivers will pay based on how many miles they drove since their last fill-up. This represents a type of vehicle mileage tax that an energy analyst recommended in Issues as a fair and adaptable way to fund highway needs as electric, shared, and autonomous vehicles become increasingly common.

12/9/17 – States and municipalities can significantly aid public heath by working around reluctant federal agencies to establish programs to help smokers reduce the harm they face from cigarettes by switching to e-cigarettes, or vaping, a health behavior expert recently suggested in Issues. In fact, the New York Times reports that more smokers now try to quit by using vaping rather than conventional nicotine-replacement methods, and the idea is even catching on among older smokers who have a greater need to quit but have often been resistant to other options.

12/6/17 – Recent years have seen a steady merging of efforts to deal with crime and immigration—dubbed by some scholars “crimmigration”—and in Issues a leading sociologist has examined the ill effects this has had on the nation. From another perspective, the police chief in Tucson, Arizona, recently wrote in the New York Times that the Trump administration’s “crackdown on immigrants is having a chilling effect on police-community relations” that threatens to “compromise public safety by reducing community confidence in law enforcement.”

12/4/17 – There is significant opportunity to expand apprenticeships in the United States, a new report finds, as the number of occupations commonly filled via apprenticeships could be nearly tripled and the number of job openings covered by this approach could be multiplied eightfold. Issues has also examined the potential of apprenticeships and ways to expand them to help students not bound for college gain skills that will enable them to enjoy satisfying and financially rewarding employment.

12/2/17 – Over the next dozen or so years, automation will force roughly a third of workers in the United States to find other ways to make money, a new study reports. In an earlier take on the automated future, an economic analyst described in Issues the kinds of jobs that robots and information technology might fill over a similar period, concluding that the nation will need to make careful and immediate adjustments to cope with expected disruptions in labor markets.