Analysis & Commentary
Timely analysis, expert commentary, and policy insights from BUILD Research Network scholars on the issues shaping housing, infrastructure, and urban development.
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The state capacity crisis
This essay and the longer paper it is based on were written for the Law of Abundance project at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Economy and Society. It is an extraordinary fact about the 2024 election that the areas…
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A Small Step to a Better APA
In 2023, I used this blog to criticize the Supreme Court’s decision in Calcutt v. FDIC as “unnecessary, unfortunate, and unpersuasive, all at the same time.” So I felt vindicated when, last week, in FDA v. Wages & White Lion…
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A Conservative Law of Abundance?
Ideally, the abundance agenda would be completely bipartisan. Getting American building again will require a mix of deregulation (permitting reform, zoning changes, preemption), improvements in state capacity (civil service reform, limiting court review, changes to procurement rules), and targeted investments…
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Defanging NEPA
The House Natural Resource Committee has released its portion of the draft reconciliation bill that’s working its way through Congress. Among other things, the committee draft includes a provision that aims to make NEPA unenforceable in the courts. The way…
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Musk and Ramaswamy Are Making a Big Mistake
A couple of weeks ago, my kitchen started to smell like sewage. The garbage disposal began to drip. The dishwasher wouldn’t drain. The toilet bubbled when my kids emptied the kitchen sink. At first, I thought the root problem was…
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The Supreme Court’s Green Double Standard
An 88-mile rail line in a remote Utah desert was at the center of the Supreme Court’s bracing decision last Thursday in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County. The legal battle over that tiny project has now led to…
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Clear a path for sweeping urban experiments such as California Forever
Earlier this fall, the Silicon Valley dreamers proposing to build a 400,000-person city and manufacturing hub on rangeland 50 miles northeast of San Francisco released a detailed rendition of their plan, which they call “California Forever.” It’s unlike anything the…
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