A New Start: Central Asia’s Nuclear Potential & Peril

The International Tax and Investment Center’s Energy, Growth, and Security Program organized a panel on March 12th, 2024, discussing the rise of Central Asia’s civilian nuclear industry and how to best incorporate it as a part of the energy mix across the region.

We Can No Longer Afford to Let China Do Our Rare Earth Mining

On Dec. 3, China banned exporting critical minerals such as gallium, germanium, and antimony to the United States. This came in the wake of the Biden administration’s announcement of new restrictions on the sale of chips and specialized chip-making machinery and software to China the day before. This exchange is merely the latest round in the ongoing battle for

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The Blockchain Revolution In The Energy Market

Blockchain is moving beyond cryptocurrencies. By 2026, the market for blockchain in the energy sector is set to exceed $1.5 billion—a massive leap from just $127.5 million in 2018. Energy companies see immense potential in this technology, including how it can transform everything from grid management to green energy trading. Blockchain is a digital technology

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The West’s role in solving Central Asia’s water crisis

The Caspian Sea, vital to Eurasia’s economy and environment, is shrinking at an alarming rate. The declining water level in the sea is one visible consequence of a larger regional water crisis faced by the C5 nations of Central Asia—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. This water crisis threatens the more than 82 million people who call the largely

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New Sanctions Against Gazprombank: Too Little, Too Late

The U.S. Treasury has announced sanctions against Russia’s Gazprombank, a lending institution inexorably linked with Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom, along with fifty other small and medium-sized banks and forty securities registrars. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also issued a warning of sanctions risks for financial institutions joining Russia’s System for Transfer of

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Winter Is Coming, But Russia Refuses To Stop The Energy War On Ukraine

A massive attack by Russia against the Ukrainian energy infrastructure on  Sunday, November 17th may have caused the Biden Administration to green-light Ukraine’s use of the U.S. ATACMS long-range missiles. Ukraine took parts of the Kursk region during its 2024 summer offensive and is struggling to hold on in the region as some 50,000 Russian

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U.S. COPing Out Of Global Climate Leadership?

Clean energy shares in the United States experienced a significant decline following Donald Trump’s election to a second term. The WilderHill Clean Energy Index fell by 6.7%, with solar companies like Sunnova Energy International Inc. and Sunrun Inc. dropping as much as 51% and 29%, respectively. The timing of this downturn is unfortunate, as green

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