R Street Institute

Free-market think tank advancing real solutions to complex policy problems. Follow our experts: Book them/media: [email protected]

[R Street Institute @RSI]

Policy ideas only matter when they move beyond the page.

At R Street, that is already happening. Our scholars are shaping conversations on the issues in front of lawmakers, staff, regulators, and civic leaders right now, from technology and energy to criminal justice, governance, and public health.

The work is not sitting on a shelf. It is reaching the people making decisions, informing debate, and helping turn serious research into real-world impact.

That is the value of investing in ideas that actually travel.

@realPOTUS2040 @AdamThierer @courtneyatlas @LoganSeacrest

[R Street Institute @RSI]

One of the recurring mistakes in energy policy is assuming that cheap gas is always proof of success. But if those low prices depend on suppressing investment incentives or ignoring longer-term supply needs, the result can be lower resilience and more painful price spikes later.

🔗 Read the full piece by @PCRossetti here: https://t.co/BekUq37SAK

[R Street Institute @RSI]

Colorado’s SB 26-115 takes a measured step toward a smarter second look process by allowing courts to reconsider some long sentences for people who are at least 60 years old and have already served 20 years. That is not leniency without limits. It is a structured reassessment based on age, time served, and demonstrated change.

🔗 Read the full testimony by @smayranderson here: https://t.co/CMybZpSg89

[R Street Institute @RSI]

Smoking cessation in older adults is not simply a matter of offering the same tools to everyone and hoping for the best. The study points to deeply entrenched habits built over 30 to 50 years or more, which makes quitting uniquely difficult for many long-term smokers.

🔗 Read the full piece by Jeffrey S. Smith here: https://t.co/VXB2B3wlg9

[R Street Institute @RSI]

The biggest barrier to data centers procuring their own power is not federal rhetoric. It is state franchise utility law. Monopoly utility structures are poorly suited to the commercial freedom data centers need if the goal is to keep their costs and risks from spilling over onto captive customers.

🔗 Read the full piece by @DC_Hartman and @kchan55 here: https://t.co/zV3BatyCIJ

[Sarah Anderson @smayranderson]

@GovofCO @jaredpolis I testified on this bill for @RSI in early May:

[R Street Institute @RSI]

Georgia may be moving beyond some tariff burdens, but that does not mean the underlying damage disappears overnight. Once supply chains are disrupted and firms have adjusted around uncertainty, the costs can linger long after the policy itself starts to loosen.

🔗 Read the full piece by @Marc_Hyden here: https://t.co/xouXxZuOhy

[R Street Institute @RSI]

Energy markets send signals. High prices encourage more production and conservation. Low prices encourage more consumption. When governments interfere with that process to produce artificially cheap fuel, they do not eliminate scarcity. They just make it harder for the market to respond to it properly.

🔗 Read the full piece by @PCRossetti here: https://t.co/GVWvWELLnq

[R Street Institute @RSI]

One of the clearest signs that current controls are backfiring is China’s growing use of domestic semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Domestic sourcing has risen sharply, substitution rates are climbing, and Chinese firms are reaching global scale faster than expected.

🔗 Read the full piece by @MarrrkDalton here: https://t.co/U8V81tdgaN

[R Street Institute @RSI]

The people most burdened by tobacco-related disease are often the least helped by current cessation policy. That is a serious public health problem, especially when older smokers face barriers that are different from those affecting younger adults and require more tailored support.

🔗 Read the full piece by Jeffrey S. Smith here: https://t.co/rZyVTFCvo6

[R Street Institute @RSI]

The pledge’s requirement that data centers “build, bring, or buy” their own power runs straight into an older electricity law tradition rooted in non-discrimination, where customers can contract with new or existing supply. That makes the pledge harder to execute than it first appears.

🔗 Read the full piece by @DC_Hartman and @kchan55 here: https://t.co/4TwPXpZecS

[R Street Institute @RSI]

The political appeal of tariffs is easy to understand. The economic cost is just easier to hide. Consumers do not always see the tax directly, but they feel it through higher prices, fewer choices, and businesses passing along increased costs wherever they can.

🔗 Read the full piece by @Marc_Hyden here: https://t.co/eEx99VftIV

[R Street Institute @RSI]

⚡ More energy demand means we need more transmission, faster permitting, and better policy.

Join R Street for drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and a timely conversation on reforming how America builds energy infrastructure. 🍻

📍 The Salt Line, Navy Yard
🕠 June 9, 5:30–7:30 PM ET
RSVP here: https://t.co/u7Z7eBRycr

[R Street Institute @RSI]

When policymakers focus only on the immediate political appeal of cheap gas, they can lose sight of the longer-term costs. Distorted prices can discourage investment, reduce future supply, and make energy systems more fragile when demand rises or shocks hit.

🔗 Read the full piece by @PCRossetti here: https://t.co/eIwvcUmg4K

[R Street Institute @RSI]

When Washington restricts U.S. suppliers without effectively restricting the overall market, it does not control China’s access to technology. It mostly controls America’s share of that market. That is a very different thing, and a much less impressive policy result.

🔗 Read the full piece by @MarrrkDalton here: https://t.co/g0VurZVnNP

[R Street Institute @RSI]

Smoking prevalence in the United States fell from more than 40 percent in the early 1960s to under 10 percent today, but that progress did not meaningfully extend to older adults. Smoking did not decline among adults 65 and older between 2011 and 2022, and the absolute number of older smokers actually grew.

🔗 Read the full piece by Jeffrey S. Smith here: https://t.co/Kv5UnFNn3P

[R Street Institute @RSI]

There is no magic wand that fully protects ratepayers in the current power market. Prices were already set to rise even without the data center surge because of supply tightness, demand growth, and an antiquated regulatory structure layered on top of both.

🔗 Read the full piece by @DC_Hartman and @kchan55 here: https://t.co/UEwXg6Ltcl

[R Street Institute @RSI]

A tariff is often sold as a penalty on foreign producers, but the bill usually lands much closer to home. For Georgia firms that rely on imported inputs, protectionism can mean higher costs, tighter margins, and harder choices about prices, hiring, and investment.

🔗 Read the full piece by @Marc_Hyden here: https://t.co/CPqopVM2SR

[R Street Institute @RSI]

Fuel affordability matters, but there is a difference between lower prices generated by healthy supply and lower prices created by political intervention. The first can reflect productive strength. The second often undermines the very conditions needed to sustain affordable energy over time.

🔗 Read the full piece by @PCRossetti here: https://t.co/YsjcPYl9Cz

[R Street Institute @RSI]

China did not respond to export controls by standing still. Chinese firms replaced lost U.S. suppliers with domestic alternatives, accelerated their own technology stack, and continued moving up the value chain. That is a strange outcome for a policy that was supposed to constrain them.

🔗 Read the full piece by @MarrrkDalton here: https://t.co/q9oA4RWEk3