Experts in the News

If John Cornyn wins reelection, "you’ll see Cornyn doing a rear-guard effort to slow the transition away from fossil fuels as much as possible while not being in the camp of climate-change deniers,” said political science fellow Mark Jones. But since the largest energy companies, including Shell and BP, are already moving toward renewables, “That train has already left the station.”

Baker Institute Director Edward Djerejian recently discussed his experiences as the U.S. Ambassador to Syria (1988-1991), and the prospects today for an Israeli-Syrian peace agreement.

Political science fellow Mark Jones gives the Democrats a 1 in 3 — or 2 in 5 — chance of flipping Texas' lower chamber; Republicans will retain a Senate majority, he says. Democrats made solid inroads in 2018 by flipping 12 state House seats. Read more at the Dallas Observer.

A transformation in the upstream sector is shifting the industry's focus to proved, developed and producing resources. "It is more of a manufacturing process now than anything else, so the whole game is technical and financial excellence,” said energy fellow Mark Finley. "People who can drill the best wells, do the best frack jobs at the lowest cost are the ones who are going to win."

Venezuela’s state-run oil company, PDVSA, “is in survival mode,” said Francisco Monaldi, who heads the institute's Latin America Energy Program. “Due to sanctions they have no alternatives, so anyone willing to assume the legal and reputational risk can easily take advantage of them.”