News Updates

The hotly debated infrastructure bill just approved by the US Senate includes $7.5 billion to build a nationwide network of public charging stations for electric vehicles. Supporters say the effort will help the United States better complete with China, which now dominates the EV market. But much more will be needed to significantly improve US competitiveness, John D. Graham, Keith B. Belton, and Suri Xia argue in Issues. They propose 10 ways to boost the nation’s nascent EV industry, from mining to manufacture, and to make EVs more attractive to US consumers.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will soon release its latest assessments. But the models used in making the assessments are flawed, many scientists now believe, citing evidence that points to slower atmospheric warming than the models predict. Roger Pielke Jr. and Justin Ritchie make this case in Issues, arguing in particular that estimates of greenhouse gas emissions, which drive atmospheric warming and are a key variable in climate models, are outdated. This creates, they write, “a misleading basis both for developing a scientific evidence base and for informing climate policy discussions.”

Democrats in the US Senate are mulling new laws to require women to register for the military draft. For Brad Allenby and Mark Hagerott, this would be at least a start. In Issues, they call for resuming universal conscription so that everyone of a certain age could potentially be called to serve. Broader social participation in the military, they write, could force government to think more carefully before deploying forces. Plus, they argue that with the military’s accelerating use of technology, “conscription will be required to bring into the military a broader array of necessary skills.”

America should boost its donations of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries, where lack of ready supplies is driving ever-higher disease numbers, according to a writer at National Review. Similarly, the bioethicist R. Alta Charo says in an Issues interview that the United States hasn’t done enough, but she also sees why there have been hurdles. “Politically, I understand that it is very hard to place the interests of people outside the country ahead of those inside,” she says. “But I think more than anything else, COVID-19 has really driven home the reality that disease does not recognize political borders.”

To help train students for the skilled jobs of the future, community colleges are increasingly forming partnerships with the business community. In this way, companies can signal their employment needs and colleges can tailor their strategies and courses accordingly. Indeed, William B. Bonvillian and Sanjay E. Sarma maintain in Issues that “community colleges could become the cornerstone of a robust, much-needed workplace education system.” To help get there, they identify elements they find to be common in successful programs, including the need to be carefully focused, flexible enough to meet emerging needs, and tailored to lifelong learning.

In the latest step toward refurbishing and expanding the nation’s infrastructure, the US House of Representatives approved a $715 billion transportation bill. Most of the funding, to be spent over five years, would go for roadways, rail systems, and public transit. The bill must yet be merged with proposals by the Biden administration and the Senate. As possible guidelines, Nathan M. Macek and Muhammed Patel, writing in Issues, propose ways to adjust current funding policies to “greatly magnify the benefits to the American public” and be “truly transformative in modernizing the rail, transit, and highway projects that serve the nation.”