Alec Stapp

Jan 7, 2025 | aei.org | Brian Potter |Alec Stapp |JAMES COLEMAN |Michael Strain

Critics contend that the current policies and regulations for building physical infrastructure in the US are too time-consuming, limiting both public and private investment and hindering projects aiming to produce and deliver energy in particular. While Congressional interest in potential permitting reforms frequently focuses on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), NEPA is just one of many federal, state, local, and tribal permitting requirements.

Nov 19, 2024 | ifp.org | Janika Schmitt |Willy Chertman |Alec Stapp

In the wake of the election, the path forward on biosecurity is unclear, and a lot will depend on who ultimately leads the key federal agencies tasked with fighting infectious disease. And there are reasons for concern: For instance, Trump has said he will disband the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy. In light of ongoing outbreaks like mpox and the spread of H5N1 influenza in American dairy cows, now is not the time to deprioritize pandemic preparedness initiatives.

Aug 16, 2024 | nber.org | Kendall Hoyt |Christopher Snyder |Alec Stapp

The authors are grateful to Robert Kadlec for an interview that provided inside information filling out our understanding of Operation Warp Speed, to Fatma Ceren Dolay for excellent research assistance, to Santi Ruiz for ably editing and streamlining our prose, and to Heidi Williams and conference participants at the May 2024 NBER Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Economy workshop for helpful comments. The editor, Ben Jones, provided extensive advice that substantially improved the paper.

Jun 27, 2024 | thedispatch.com | Justin Perry |Joseph Polidoro |Alec Stapp |Thomas M. Lenard

Science, in principle, is self-correcting. New evidence can baffle and challenge the scientific consensus of a given moment. This process has led to some of the most important scientific discoveries of our time. It’s no surprise, therefore, that taxpayer support for biomedical research remains a bipartisan issue.

Apr 22, 2024 | ifp.org | Alec Stapp |Brian Potter

This article originally appeared in Asterisk Magazine, Issue 5: “Mistakes.”1970 was a landmark year for environmental legislation. While the U.S. environmental movement had been building for decades, a series of industrial catastrophes in the late 1960s coupled with growing awareness of the impacts of pollution turned the natural world into a top policy priority. As it was not yet a politically polarized issue, Democrats and Republicans alike jockeyed to prove how much they cared.