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Progress Report
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News, events, and must-read analysis from the Progressive Policy Institute.
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** Paul Bledsoe: Russian gas is a climate and security disaster
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With Russian troops massing on Ukraine’s border, and President Biden urging Russia’s Vladimir Putin not to invade, the geopolitics of Russian natural gas are growing increasingly intolerable. European gas imports are a mainstay of cash for Putin’s regime, with over one-third of Kremlin funding coming directly from oil and gas revenue, even as Russia increases repression at home, attempts to undermine democratic elections abroad and continues to use its gas as a geopolitical weapon against Europe.

If that weren’t enough, Russia is the world’s largest emitter of methane, a super climate pollutant whose mitigation is now crucial to global climate change efforts. The EU gets more than 25 percent of its total gas and half its gas imports from Russia’s leaky, antiquated gas production system with emissions of methane eight times higher than EU domestic gas. With methane leaks of at least 5 to 7 percent, (http://) the EU is addicted to Russian gas that increases warming twice as much as the coal it’s meant to replace.

Russian Gas is a Climate and Security Disaster ([link removed])
by PPI's Paul Bledsoe
for The Hill ([link removed])
READ MORE ([link removed])
[link removed]: https%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fopinion%2Fenergy-environment%2F584956-russian-gas-is-a-climate-and-security-disaster Tweet ([link removed]: https%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fopinion%2Fenergy-environment%2F584956-russian-gas-is-a-climate-and-security-disaster)
[link removed] Forward ([link removed])
Read the New Report:

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The Role of Natural Gas in Meeting Global Energy and Climate Change Goals
By Paul Bledsoe

A new report ([link removed]) authored by the Progressive Policy Institute’s Paul Bledsoe finds that the European Union’s huge reliance on high-methane emitting Russian gas undermines the EU’s climate goals.

The report, entitled “The Role of Natural Gas in Limiting European Union Emissions: Key Opportunities to Cut Methane, Coal and CO2,” ([link removed]) also has major implications for U.S. and global climate policy. Cutting methane from gas, first in the EU and U.S., then globally, can greatly reduce near-term emissions, speeding up the phase out of coal in the EU and Asia, and providing new market share for lower-methane U.S. liquefied natural gas exports.

This report is the first of four reports on the role of natural gas in reducing emissions.

READ THE REPORT ([link removed])
[link removed]: https%3A%2F%2Fwww.progressivepolicy.org%2Fpublication%2Fthe-role-of-natural-gas-in-meeting-global-energy-and-climate-change-goals%2F Tweet ([link removed]: https%3A%2F%2Fwww.progressivepolicy.org%2Fpublication%2Fthe-role-of-natural-gas-in-meeting-global-energy-and-climate-change-goals%2F)
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Arielle Kane for Bloomberg: Would the U.S. Have Spotted Omicron as Fast as South Africa?

A disorganized public health system slows and muddies America’s Covid response.

President Joe Biden told Americans not to panic about the omicron Covid-19 variant because the U.S. has “the best vaccine in the world, the best medicines, [and] the best scientists.” What the U.S. doesn’t have, however, is the best data. Although the country’s virus DNA sequencing has improved, its data infrastructure still isn’t robust enough to handle this and future pandemics.

When Biden assumed office, the U.S. was sequencing the DNA and thus identifying the viral strains of roughly 8,000 positive Covid-19 tests a week. Ten months later, U.S. labs are sequencing about 80,000 a week. Last week that amounted to one in seven PCR tests. This isn’t enough.

Would the U.S. Have Spotted Omicron as Fast as South Africa? ([link removed])
by PPI's Arielle Kane
for Bloomberg ([link removed])
READ MORE ([link removed])
[link removed]: https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fopinion%2Farticles%2F2021-12-07%2Fto-navigate-omicron-and-future-pandemics-u-s-needs-to-improve-its-data-game Tweet ([link removed]: https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fopinion%2Farticles%2F2021-12-07%2Fto-navigate-omicron-and-future-pandemics-u-s-needs-to-improve-its-data-game)
[link removed] Forward ([link removed])
New from the Experts

New Report on Climate and Geopolitics from PPI's Paul Bledsoe:
The Role of Natural Gas in Meeting Global Energy and Climate Change Goals
⮕ PPI ([link removed])

New Report on Higher Education from PPI's Paul Weinstein Jr. and Veronica Goodman:
Hidden Prices and Higher Tuition: The Case for Transparency in Higher Education Pricing and Advanced Credit
⮕ PPI ([link removed])

PPI President Will Marshall for The Hill:
To empower parents, reinvent schools
⮕ The Hill ([link removed])

Center for New Liberalism's Jeremiah Johnson in The Hill:
To Tame Inflation, Biden Should Cut Tariffs
⮕ The Hill ([link removed])

PPI's Ed Gresser for New York Daily News:
Clogged Ports, Empty Truck Cabs: Good Problems to Have
⮕ New York Daily News ([link removed])

PPI's Trade Fact of the Week:
Women Head 25 Trade and Commerce Ministries
⮕ Trade Fact of the Week ([link removed])

If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe
to Trade Fact of the Week here ([link removed]) !
Hot Off the Press


Washington Post: First in The Climate 202: Russian gas threatens Europe's climate goals, report says ([link removed])
"The European Union could miss its 2030 climate targets because of its reliance to imported Russian natural gas, which releases massive quantities of heat-trapping methane, according to a report shared exclusively with The Climate 202.

The report ([link removed]) by the Progressive Policy Institute, a center-left think tank, examined the E.U.'s status as the world's largest gas importer — and by far the largest importer of gas from Russia. It found that Russia's aging, leaking production and transport system has “extremely high” emissions of methane, a powerful planet-warming pollutant."

⮕ Washington Post ([link removed])

The Atlantic: Democrats are Losing the Culture Wars ([link removed])
"Too many Democrats “think it’s about the things government can do for you, but lots of working people of all races … want opportunity … They want a way to get ahead of their own effort,” [Will] Marshall told me."

⮕ The Atlantic ([link removed])

E&E News: Missing from Biden EV plan: State support for charging ([link removed])
“If the clean energy transition is seen as elitist, it will undermine support,” [Paul] Bledsoe said. “As a matter of politics, it has to be broadly shared by people of all income levels, and it has to show long-term it will reduce costs for consumers.”

⮕ E&E News ([link removed])
The Hill: States Shouldn't Push Americas Off the Telehealth Cliff ([link removed])
"Some policymakers have feared that having more telehealth options would lead to patients overusing the service, thereby increasing healthcare spending. But a new study ([link removed]) from the right-leaning Americans for Prosperity and the left-leaning Progressive Policy Institute finds that these fears are unfounded. “While some of the findings will need a longer study window to see what happens after the pandemic ends, it’s evident that consumers don’t use telehealth promiscuously,” the report says. “Instead, telehealth presents a promising opportunity to tailor care to individuals’ unique circumstances and makes it easier for people to access essential services.”

⮕ The Hill ([link removed])
New on the Pod
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On this week's episode, Paul Bledsoe, author of a new PPI report titled "The Role of Natural Gas in Limiting European Union Emissions: Key Opportunities to Cut Methane, Coal and CO2" sits down to explain the major implications for U.S. and global climate policy, as well as some of the key recommendations from the report. The report calls for an international effort to accurately verify and monitor methane emissions from domestic and imported gas and then regulate emissions to as close to zero as possible. These actions, if taken together, could play a major role in reducing greenhouse as global emissions as renewable energy grows.

What should we expect in the 2022 midterms next year? Former Jeb Bush comms director and current xxxxxx writer Tim Miller joins the podcast to talk about next year's midterm elections. What does each party want the midterm elections to be about? What's wrong with Democratic messaging that's caused Biden's popularity to slip? Is a GOP wave unavoidable? What are the odds Democrats can keep the Senate? Listen to find out!


** Don't Miss This PPI Event
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VOTING WITH THEIR FEET: Responding to Increased Demand for Innovative Schools Reinventing America's Schools
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Join PPI’s Reinventing America’s Schools Project (RAS) on Wednesday, December 15, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. EDT for a one hour webinar on enrollment trends during the pandemic.

Many parents expressed dissatisfaction with traditional public schools during the first year of the pandemic. Studies show that thousands of them expressed that dissatisfaction by disenrolling their children, or “voting with their feet.” At the same time, public charter schools–known for adopting innovative approaches to educating students–dramatically increased enrollment from the end of the 2020 school year to the end of the 2021 school year. So, now what? How can parents and policymakers keep the momentum going to increase options for parents who want them?

This webinar is part of a series co-sponsored by RAS and The 74 Million.

RSVP Today ([link removed]) !
Don't Miss This PPI Report
NEW: Hidden Prices and Higher Tuition: The Case for Transparency in Higher Education Pricing and Advanced Credit
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The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) released a new report ([link removed]) this week outlining several root causes of the lack of affordable and accessible higher education in America. Report authors Paul Weinstein Jr. and Veronica Goodman propose increasing price transparency and ensuring prospective students get the credit they’ve earned before beginning their degree.

The skyrocketing cost of higher education affects young people across the country, with more than one in five U.S. households holding a student loan and the increased costs of college outpacing inflation nearly fivefold since 1983. Policymakers’ increased focus on proposals to expand financial aid and loans – or cancel them entirely – neglects the reality that these remedies would not prevent the problem from repeating itself year after year.

Read the report today! ([link removed])

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