R Street Institute

Read the full article by Chelsea Boyd, Resident Research Fellow, Harm Reduction, & Jessica Shortall, Strategic Partnerships Lead, Integrated Harm Reduction, here: rstreet.org/commentary/saf…

One of the biggest mistakes in substance policy is treating unlike products as though they are interchangeable. When regulation ignores meaningful differences in risk, it sends the wrong signals to consumers and often protects the status quo rather than improving public health.

A political movement starts to decay when fidelity shifts from ideas to a cult of personality. Once loyalty to an individual becomes the organizing principle, standards become negotiable and principles become optional. That is how a movement loses its shape without fully realizing it. Read the full article by Erica Schoder here: bit.ly/4bkAGzN

Read the full article by @jneeley78 and Chris Villareal, Associate Fellow, Energy and Environment at @RSI, here: rstreet.org/commentary/low…

Missouri’s electricity challenge is no longer theoretical. Rates have been rising faster than in most of the country, and the state is on track to move above the national average. When costs climb that quickly, the case for market reform becomes much harder to ignore.

Read the full @RSI Statement here: rstreet.org/commentary/sta…

One of the most important insights in the new strategy is that Americans, businesses, and allies cannot be left to face cyber threats alone. When adversaries impose real costs through digital means, the federal government has to be prepared to impose meaningful costs in return if deterrence is going to matter.

Read the full article by Jillian Snider, Resident Senior Fellow, Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties, here: rstreet.org/commentary/bri…

You cannot run a criminal justice system on guesswork. If researchers cannot access usable agency data, policymakers are left making major public safety decisions without a clear picture of what is actually happening. Better data access is not a side issue. It is basic governance.

Read the full article by Jillian Snider, Resident Senior Fellow, Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties, here: rstreet.org/commentary/sta…

One of the biggest public safety mistakes is forcing every tragedy into the wrong policy frame. When a case points to failures in mental health intervention or transit safety, redirecting it into a different political narrative does not clarify the issue. It obscures it.

Register here: rstreet.org/events/nature-…

As the republic approaches 250 years, join @RSI for a conversation on one of the most enduring threads in the American story, its frontier natural beauty. Featuring @SL_Schaeffer, @allie__voss, Alan Taylor, and Mark Miller. March 25, 3:00–4:15 PM ET Register here: rstreet.org/events/nature-…

Read the full article by Jeffrey Smith, Resident Senior Fellow, Healthier Communities, here: rstreet.org/commentary/tax…

Harm reduction only works if people have both information and incentives. Telling smokers to move to lower-risk products while taxing those products at near-cigarette levels sends a mixed message. It suggests the government does not really believe the risk differences it claims to recognize. Policy is most effective when it aligns words and incentives.

Read the full article by @jneeley78 here: rstreet.org/commentary/low…

Technology choice matters, but state capacity matters more than many people admit. A country with fast, predictable, and fair approval systems can build a wide range of energy resources. A country with slow and fragmented institutions will struggle even when investment interest exists. The bottleneck is often not engineering. It is permission.

Read the full article by Jeffrey Smith, Resident Senior Fellow, Healthier Communities, here: rstreet.org/commentary/tax…

A lot of nicotine policy still treats all products as morally interchangeable. But science and regulation increasingly point to a continuum of risk rather than a single undifferentiated category. Once that is acknowledged, the tax question becomes much clearer. If risk differs, tax rates should differ too.

Read the full article by @jneeley78 here: rstreet.org/commentary/low…

Energy infrastructure gets blocked in more ways than most people realize. Some barriers come from federal action, but many come from states, counties, courts, and grid operators. That is why blaming one administration is too simple. The real challenge is that the system creates veto points almost everywhere.