Artificial Intelligence: The Emerging Challenges

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for decades, but with the launching of generative AI apps, like ChatGPT which debuted in December 2022, policymakers have become much more interested in understanding both the benefits and dangers of this rapidly developing tool. AI generally has been defined as “machine learning models developed through training on large volumes of data in order to generate content” in the form of images, text, and audio. Or, as the European Parliament puts it, “AI is the ability of a machine to display human-like capabilities such as reasoning, learning, planning and creativity.”

For years, thought leaders in the cyberworld have touted the advantages of artificial intelligence: AI can help avoid human error; it can be available 24/7; it can be a form of digital assistance instead of relying on human interaction; it can perform repetitive tasks; it can formulate unbiased decision-making; it can be deployed in risky, dangerous situations; it has a wide variety of applications in medicine and disease prevention, along with other promising developments.

But for years, leaders in the cyber world have warned against the excesses and the unregulated nature of AI. This one-sentence warning from the Center for AI Safety, a nonprofit organization, has been signed by more than 350 AI scientists, executives, researchers and engineers: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, which is part of the European Union’s digital strategy to “ensure better conditions for development and use of this innovative technology.” EU rules were first proposed in April 2021, setting up a classification system, according to the risks involved. The European Parliament’s priority is to make sure that AI systems in the EU are “safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory and environmentally friendly. AI systems should be overseen by people, rather than by automation, to prevent harmful outcomes.”

The EU rules will ban AI systems as “Unacceptable Risks” if they are considered a threat to people. Such unacceptable risks are (1) cognitive behavioral manipulation of people or specific vulnerable groups (for example, voice-activated toys that encourage dangerous behavior in children); (2) social scoring: classifying people based on behavior, socio-economic status, or personal characteristics (for example, systems allowing law enforcement to predict criminal behavior using analytics); and (3) real-time and remote biometric identification systems, such as facial recognition.

Then in late October 2023, President Biden issued an Executive Order on AI, the most sweeping and comprehensive affecting this new industry. The Biden administration asserted that the Executive Order “establishes new standards for AI safety and security, protects Americans’ privacy, advances equity and civil rights, stands up for consumers and workers, promotes innovation and competition, advances American leadership around the world, and more.” The administration stated that it had consulted widely with Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the EU, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, the UAE, and the United Kingdom, as well as ongoing discussions with the United Nations.

The Biden administration acknowledged that, despite the comprehensive nature of the Executive Order, that much still needed to be done the Congress, and done without delay. However, then came a change in administration. Immediately upon entering office, Donald Trump issued an Executive Order “eliminating harmful Biden Administration AI policies” that “hinder AI innovation and onerous and unnecessary government control over the development of AI.”

Sources: Laurie A. Harris, Artificial Intelligence: Overview, Recent Advances, and Considerations for the 118th Congress, Congressional Research Service, August 4, 2023, R47644, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47644; “What is Artificial Intelligence and How is It Used?” European Parliament, June 20, 2023, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20200827STO85804/what-is-artificial-intelligence-and-how-is-it-used. “Statement on AI Risk,” Center for AI Safety, n.d., https://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk (accessed October 24, 2023). “EU AI Act: First Regulation on Artificial Intelligence,” European Parliament, June 8, 2023, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20230601STO93804/eu-ai-act-first-regulation-on-artificial-intelligence. Liz Landers and Luke Barr, “How Obama Helped President Biden Draft the AI Executive Order,” ABC News, November 3, 2023, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-helped-president-biden-draft-ai-executive-order/story?id=104608286. “President Biden Issues Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence,” The White House, October 30, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/30/fact-sheet-president-biden-issues-executive-order-on-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-artificial-intelligence/.“Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Takes Action to Enhance America’s AO Leadership,” The White House, January 23, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-takes-action-to-enhance-americas-ai-leadership/

Metric System: We’re One of Three Countries Not Adopting It

Americans are outliers when it comes to measurements, clinging to the old Imperial system rather than the metric system. At one time in the 1970s, the American government experimented with the metric system, but it never caught on. Americans prefer miles (not kilometers), gallons (not liters), and Fahrenheit (not Celsius). In 1975, Congress enacted the Metric Conversion Act, which declared that the metric system was “the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce.” The law did not mandate conversion, noting that it was “completely voluntary.” It also developed a US Metric Board to help educate the American public and to implement a conversion.

Nearly every other country in the world has adopted the metric system. In fact, just three countries in the world—Myanmar, Liberia, and the United States—officially cling to the Imperial system. Not even the country most associated historically with the Imperial system—the United Kingdom—has stayed with it, although there are plenty of informal uses.

Ironically, the America system of money is based on 100s, a metric measurement. Thomas Jefferson proposed that American money be based on divisions of 100; thus, the United States became the first country in the world to “metrify” its coinage. Today, the euro, adopted nearly everywhere in Europe, is based on the metric system; even the British pound sterling is based on its own metric system, with 100 pence (pennies) per pound.

Why, in today’s nearly global acceptance of the metric system, would anyone object to the US joining the rest of the world? Historian Stephen Mihm argued that national pride is at stake. “The adoption of another country's weights and measures—or in the case of the metric system, the rest of the world's weights and measures—seems an infringement on national sovereignty. That the system in question has a long and distinguished history as a pet project of Francophile, cosmopolitan liberals probably doesn't help make it appealing to American conservatives.”

Source: Mihm quoted in Yoni Appelbaum, “Who’s Afraid of the Metric System?” The Atlantic, June 6, 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/06/whos-afraid-of-the-metric-system/395057/.

Broadband Performance: We’re Number 9

Some 8.5 million locations in the US that lack access to broadband connections. Looking at their balance sheets, broadband companies like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and Charter Communications are reluctant to provide access to rural communities, with small populations, and the need for large investments to provide service to them. The lack of such service became particularly evident during the COVID pandemic.

In June 2023, the White House announced that $42 billion would be divided up among the states and US territories, making high-speed Internet access available universally by 2030. The funds—the largest ever spent on the Internet in the US—came out of the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, deemed the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program. Nineteen states received allocations of over $1 billion, with these states receiving the most funds: Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

Along with the issue of access is that of broadband speed. In the most recent analysis, the United States ranked 9th in Megabits/second speed. Romania, Switzerland, Denmark, Thailand, and Chile led the list of having the fastest broad band speed.

Sources: Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw, “US to Spend $42 Billion to Make Internet Access Universal by 2030,” Reuters, June 26, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-detail-plans-42-billion-investment-us-internet-access-2023-06-26/. “Biden-Harris Administration Announces Over $40 Billion to Connect Everyone in America to Affordable, Reliable, High-Speed Internet,” White House, June 26, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/06/26/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-over-40-billion-to-connect-everyone-in-america-to-affordable-reliable-high-speed-internet/. Internet Speeds by Country, 2023,” World Population Review, n.d., https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/internet-speeds-by-country.

Semiconductor Manufacturing: We’re Number 5

In 1990, some 37 percent of advanced semiconductor chips were manufactured in the United States; by 2020, the percentage had fallen dramatically to just 12 percent. Not only had production fallen, but the US lacked the capability to produce the most advanced chips in volume. Foreign competitors, particularly China, have invested heavily in this vital industry, fueled by government subsidies.

ASML in the Netherlands is the only manufacturer in the world making microchips that are essential to produce semiconductors. These microchips contain billions of transistors, making the chips faster, more powerful, and more energy efficient. ASML (for Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography) employs EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography to create the tiny circuitry found in computer chips, and its most recent tool, a High NA EUV, the size of a double-decker bus and costing $350 million, will help develop a new generation of even smaller and faster chips. The giant chip makers, TSMC in Taiwan, Samsung in South Korea, and Intel in the United States, rely on the ASML technology and products. Everything from smart technology found in automobiles and mobile phones, to augmented reality, and artificial intelligence rely on EUV technology. In 2024, an Intel facility near Hillsboro, Oregon, using High NA EUV technology, was under production and a major TSMC plant in Arizona was near completion.

One estimate finds that within the next decade, there will be a 53 percent increase in the demand for such semiconductor chips. For many policymakers in the US, these daunting facts showed how imperative it was to enact legislation boosting the US semiconductor industry.

In July 2022, through a rare bipartisan vote, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, designed to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research and development, and tax credits for chip manufacturing. To protect domestic competitiveness in this field, the CHIPS Act provided safeguards to ensure that those companies receiving federal funds could not build advanced semiconductor production facilities in countries that present national security concerns. As the Biden White House noted, “America invented the semiconductor, but today produces about 10 percent of the world’s supply—and none of the most advanced chips. Instead, we rely on East Asia for 75 percent of global production. The CHIPS and Science Act will unlock hundreds of billions more in private sector semiconductor investment across the country, including production essential to national defense and critical sectors.”

As Reuters noted, “The CHIPS Act will have a broad impact, bolstering US leadership in wireless technology, and CHIPS funding will benefit not only US chip manufacturers, but also U.S. universities, K-12 STEM educational programs, and regional hubs among other advancements in innovation.”

Sources: “The ‘NA’ in the name refers to numerical aperture – a measure of the ability of an optical system to collect and focus light. And it’s called High NA EUV because we’ve increased the NA from 0.33 in our NXE systems to 0.55 in EXE systems. The higher NA is what gives the systems their better resolution.” In Christine Middleton, “Five Things You Should Know About High NA EUV Lithography,” ASML, January 24, 2024, https://www.asml.com/en/news/stories/2024/5-things-high-na-euv; “EUV Lithography Systems,” ASML, n.d., https://www.asml.com/en/products/euv-lithography-systems. “Semiconductor Manufacturing by Country,” World Population Review, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/semiconductor-manufacturing-by-country. “CHIPS and Science Act Will Lower Costs, Create Jobs, Strengthen Supply Chains, and Counter China,” The White House, August 9, 2022, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/09/fact-sheet-chips-and-science-act-will-lower-costs-create-jobs-strengthen-supply-chains-and-counter-china/. CHIPS is an acronym for “Creating Healthy Incentives to Produce Semiconductors.” Michelle Schulz, “Passage of the CHIPS and Science Act: What does This Mean for US Export Controls? Reuters, September 7, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/passage-chips-science-act-what-does-this-mean-us-export-controls-2022-09-07/.

Global Innovation: We’re Number 3

The Global Innovation Index, co-founded in 2007 by Soumitra Dutta, dean of the Säid Business School at Oxford University, uses eighty indicators to track global innovation in over 130 economies. Dutta noted that “We are witnessing exponential progress in digital technologies and many fields of deep science. This is providing a boost to innovation across sectors and holds the hope of providing solutions to some of our world’s complex problems in climate, food, health and related challenges.” For the thirteenth year in a row, Switzerland was ranked as the most innovative of all the 130-plus economies surveyed; Sweden was ranked 2nd. The United States was ranked number 2 in 2022 but slipped to number 3 in 2023.

Sources: Global Innovation Index 2023: Switzerland, Sweden and the US Lead the Global Innovation Ranking,” Säid School of Business, Oxford University, September 27, 2023, https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/news/global-innovation-index-2023-switzerland-sweden-and-us-lead-global-innovation-ranking; Global Innovation Index Database, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 2023, https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo-pub-2000-2023-section1-en-gii-2023-at-a-glance-global-innovation-index-2023.pdf.

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the largest technology trade association in North America, since 2018 has published a worldwide ranking of innovation. In its 2023 report, focused on 17 categories, encompassing 40 separate indicators. In these evaluations, the United States exhibited a decided leadership role. Looking at several categories, the US ranked number one in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, drones and advanced air mobility, and telehealth and telemedicine.

Source: “2023 CTA International Innovation Scorecard,” Consumer Technology Association, January 2023, https://cdn.cta.tech/cta/media/media/advocacy/scorecard/2023-cta-international-innovation-scorecard.pdf. Also earning plaudits from the CTA were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the European Union

Spending on Research and Development: We’re Number 4

President Dwight Eisenhower was a firm believer in Research and Development (R&D) investments and knew that private industry could not bear the burden of such expenditures by itself. R&D basically covers three types of activity: basic research, applied research, and experimental development. Simply put, R&D has been described as the “generation of new knowledge.” It was up to the federal government and Republican Eisenhower to push for more federal expenditures. As journalist David Leonhardt observed, the “Eisenhower investment boom has no peer in US history, at least outside a major war.” He was able to be both a “fiscal conservative and a president who nearly tripled R&D spending” between the early 1950s and the early 1960s.

In 1964, the US government provided about two-thirds of all domestic R&D funds; by the 2020s, that federal contribution had slipped dramatically, with just 21 percent of R&D funds. Nearly all the remaining R&D funds were provided by private business. In 2021, federal R&D funds account for less than 1 percent of GDP.

As a percentage of GDP, the United States ranks fourth in the world, after Israel, South Korea, and Taiwan in investing money in Research & Development.

Note: The OECD defines gross domestic spending on R&D as “the total expenditure (current and capital) on R&D carried out by all resident companies, research institutes, university and government laboratories, etc., in a country. . .This indicator is measured in USD constant prices using 2015 base year and Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) and as percentage of GDP.”

Sources: “Gross Domestic Spending on R&D,” OECD, https://data.oecd.org/rd/gross-domestic-spending-on-r-d.htm (accessed October 30, 2023). Stephen James, “What is R&D? Its Role in Business and How It Relates to R&D Tax Credits,” ForrestBrown, October 13, 2009, https://forrestbrown.co.uk/news/what-is-r-and-d/; David Leonhardt, “Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America,” New York Times, October 17, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/17/magazine/us-public-investment.html (accessed October 30, 2023). See, also, John Walsh, “The Eisenhower Era: Transition Years for Science,” Science 164 (3875) (April 4, 1969): 50-53, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1726957; Gary Anderson and Francisco Moris, “Federally-Funded R&D Declines as a Share of GDP and Total R&D,” National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, NSF 23-339, National Science Foundation, June 13, 2023, https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf23339#:~:text=The%20ratio%20of%20U.S.%20research,funding%20sources%20for%20domestic%20R%26D.

Electric Vehicles Market Share: We’re Number 21

During the first half of 2023, Tesla ranked as Number 1 (Model Y) and Number 2 (Model 3) in the worldwide EV market. The next four positions were held by the Chinese company BYD. Chinese companies held twelve of the twenty top spots in EV sales during this time. Chinese EV manufacturers are producing highly sophisticated, beautifully designed, and most importantly, affordable vehicles, that are rapidly filling markets throughout the world—except for the United States. In May 2024, the Biden administration imposed a 100 percent tariff on Chinese EVs. President Biden justified the move to protect American jobs and market share, arguing that the Chinese “are flooding the market. It’s not competing—it’s cheating.” Indeed, the threat was real. Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley was “shocked” in a 2024 visit to China, seeing first-hand the extraordinary improvement in manufacturing, design, and features in Chinese EVs. Ford, which until very recently had been the second ranked EV producer (behind Tesla) in the United States, had been losing an estimated $36,000 on each of the 36,000 EVs it had delivered to its dealers during the third quarter of 2024. General Motors postponed plans for a $4 billion electric vehicle plant to be opened in Michigan.

The government of China has determined that the production of EVs would be a strategic investment, providing economic benefits as well as reducing air pollution and dependence on foreign oil. By 2022, the automobile company BYD had sold 1.85 million EVs, becoming the world’s second largest producer, behind Tesla; in 2023, BYD became the world leader in fully electric cars. Its best-selling EV, the Seagull, sells for around $11,000. Currently, the Chinese consumer can choose from almost 300 models; in addition, 80 percent of the top EVs sold in China are made by Chinese companies. Like Norway, China has offered a series of subsidies and tax breaks, both for the manufacturers of EVs and their customers, often making EVs cheaper than ICE vehicles. For BYD, the Chinese government had invested $2.6 billion from 2008 through 2022; the company was also given critical assistance from American investor Warren E. Buffet, who bought 10 percent of BYD in 2008, giving the company a critical infusion of cash. The central government also has invested in 760,000 public fast-charging stations and 1 million public slower-charging stations—more than the rest of the world combined. It also adopted a variation of the California zero-emissions mandate to eventually replace subsidies.

As journalist Joel Jaeger noted, “policies mandating 100 percent EV sales are the single most effective policy to drive the transition. Currently, sixteen countries including Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom, have some form of policy mandating 100 percent EV sales in 2035 or earlier.”

Sources: José Pontes, “World EV Sales Now 19% of World Sales!” CleanTechnica.com, August 2, 2023, https://cleantechnica.com/2023/08/02/world-ev-sales-now-19-of-world-auto-sales/; Mike Colias, “What Scared Ford’s CEO in China,” Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/ford-china-ev-competition-farley-ceo-50ded461; Biden quote from Natalie Sherman, “Biden Hits Chinese Electric Cars and Solar Cells with Higher Tariffs,” BBC, May 14, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-69004520; David Shepherdson and Nathan Gomes, “Ford Cuts F-150 Lightning Production as EV Demand Softens,” Reuters, January 19, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-reduce-f-150-lightning-production-2024-01-19/#:~:text=Ford%20lost%20an%20estimated%20%2436%2C000,sales%20of%20gas%2Delectric%20hybrids; Keith Bradsher, “How China built BYD, Its Tesla Killer,” New York Times, February 10, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/business/byd-china-electric-vehicle.html; Joel Jaeger, “These Countries Are Adopting Electric Vehicles the Fastest,” World Resources Institute, September 14, 2023, https://www.wri.org/insights/countries-adopting-electric-vehicles-fastest#:~:text=The%20top%205%20countries%20with,%25)%2C%20according%20to%20our%20analysis.

Topping the list of EV adoptions is Norway, which in 2022 saw 87.8 percent of its new automobiles as EVs; in 2013, that figure was just 6.1 percent. Iceland is 2nd, with 56.1 percent new car adoptions (1.3 percent in 2013); Sweden is tied for 2nd with 56.1 percent adoption (0.7 percent in 2013); Denmark is 4th, with 38.6 percent adoption (0.3 in 2013), and Finland is 5th, with 37.5 percent adoption (none in 2013).

The United States comes in 21st place, with 7.7 percent EV adoption in 2022, with a 0.16 percent adoption in 2013.

But with the second Trump administration, electric vehicles were no longer a priority. Trump, two months before taking office for his second term, vowed to get rid of the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases. His close adviser, Elon Musk, heartily agreed. “Take away the subsidies, it will only help Tesla,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns. The elimination of the tax credit would most likely hurt General Motors, Ford, Rivian, and Stellantis—the weakest American rivals to Tesla. On January 20, 2025, his first day in office, Trump cancelled the EV tax credit. Edmunds.com, an automobile purchasing guide, warned that “the potential elimination of the federal tax credit for electric vehicles by the Trump administration—without another form of incentive to replace it—could derail the trajectory of EV sales in the United States.”

Sources: Executive Order, “Unleashing American Energy,” White House, January 20, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy; /Kate Gibson, “Trump’s Win Could Sharply Raise the Cost of Electric Vehicles. Here’s Why,” CBS News, November 15,2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-elon-musk-donald-trump-ev-tax-credit/.

Best International Airports: We’re Number 18

In 2014, Vice President Joe Biden said that if he blindfolded someone and took her to La Guardia Airport in New York, she would think she was in “some third world country.” Indeed, for years, American airports had been neglected, with private and public funds not keeping up with demand and with needed improvements and repairs. International surveys, like the one conducted by Skytrax, showed, year after year, that American airports were being outclassed by new and improved airports in Asia and Europe. Since 1999, Skytrax, an airline and airport review and ranking consulting firm based in London, has been conducting customer satisfaction reviews on some 550 airports throughout the world. Its rankings are based on a wide variety of factors, including the airport’s website, getting to and from the airport, attitudes of airport staff, cleanliness of restrooms, lost luggage services, children’s play areas, WI-FI access and speed, and perceptions of airport security and safety.

The best America could do was the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, ranking 18th worldwide. The best airports were Changi Airport (Singapore), Doha Hama International Airport (Qatar), Tokyo Haneda International Airport (Japan), Seoul Inchon International Airport (Korea), and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (France).

Other American airports in the 2023 ranking were Houston Hobby International Airport (Number 32); Houston George Bush Airport (35); Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky (46); San Francisco International Airport (48); New York La Guardia International Airport (57); Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport (62); Los Angeles International Airport (63); Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (66); Denver International Airport (71); New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (88); Phoenix International Airport (94); Boston Logan International Airport (96); and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (99).

Sources: “Biden Compares La Guardia Airport to ‘Third World,’” New York Times, February 6, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/nyregion/biden-compares-la-guardia-airport-to-third-world.html. Skytrax World Airport Awards, 2023, https://www.worldairportawards.com/worlds-top-100-airports-2023/.

Best Urban Public Transportation Systems: We’re Number 15 and 17

When it comes to urban transportation, in local customer surveys, no city in the US comes in the top ten. The best is New York City (ranking 15th among major cities worldwide) and Chicago (17th).

Berlin ranks 1st, with 97 percent customer satisfaction; Prague is 2nd (96 percent); Tokyo is 3rd (94 percent), Copenhagen is 4th (93 percent) as well as Stockholm (93 percent). New York, at 15th, has a customer satisfaction rating of 83 percent Chicago, ranking 17th has a rating of 82 percent.

Source: “19 Cities with the Best Public Transport in the World—According to Locals,” Timeout, April 3, 2023, https://www.timeout.com/travel/best-public-transport-in-the-world.

High-Speed Train Networks: We Still Don’t Have Any

Early in the Obama presidency, Congress passed the $797 billion stimulus package which included a plan for federal high-speed rail investments. Major US cities were to be linked by high-speed rail. By January 2012, the Obama administration had put in more than $10 billion in federal money for high-speed rail development. But some state and local officials were balking. The governors of Wisconsin (Scott Walker), Florida (Rick Scott), and Ohio (John R. Kasich)—all Republicans—gave back billions of federal dollars, denouncing the programs as creations of big federal government and as economically unfeasible.

In California, the only high-speed rail project that actually began construction ran into major problems. The high-speed train project, an 800-mile system, was expected to be completed by 2020, but has been pushed back to 2033. In the meantime, by 2040, the population of California is projected to be over 54 million, another 17 million more than in 2010. In addition, the cost of the project has now tripled, to nearly $100 billion. Another $202 million was pumped into the project through the Infrastructure Act in September 2023. The project is limping along, way over budget, experiencing maddening delays.

By contrast, high-speed rail service, “bullet trains,” are common in other advanced countries. Railway Technology reported that the fastest trains operating today are in service in China, Germany, France, Japan, Morocco, Spain, South Korea, and Italy. Not in the United States, where the closest thing to a high-speed train would be Amtrak’s Acela, operating between Washington, DC, New York, and Boston. Amtrak planned to spend $2.3 billion to replace its aging Acela fleet and improve railway tracks, but the project is already three years behind schedule. Amtrak was contracted with the French rail manufacturing firm Alstom to develop and manufacture twenty-eight new high-speed train sets, but have run into delays because they have not met Federal Railroad Administration safety requirements. Finally, in January 2024, on the fourteenth try, the new trains passed the federal safety tests. The new Acela service is scheduled to begin operating in June 2024, with trains running at 257 km (160 miles) per hour, much faster than the older Acela trains. Amtrak will be receiving $22 billion from the Infrastructure Act.

So confident in its high-speed network of trains, the Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV), the French government in April 2022 banned short-haul domestic flights in the country. The aim was to curb France’s carbon emissions from aviation, and despite complaints from businesses in the aviation sector, the program is moving ahead with government funding and support, and other European countries are looking at the possibilities of greater reliance on short-haul train travel rather than airlines. Throughout Europe, passenger rail service is booming, with a 50 percent jump between 2021 and 2022.

Sources: David Shepardson, “US Passenger Railroad Amtrak High-Speed Acela Program Facing New Delays,” Reuters, October 3, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-passenger-railroad-amtrak-high-speed-acela-program-facing-new-delays-2023-10-03/; Peter Nilson, “French Short-Haul Ban Only Possible Thanks to High-Speed Rail,” Railway Technology, September 27, 2022, https://www.railway-technology.com/features/french-short-haul-ban-only-possible-thanks-to-rail/?cf-view; Paige McClanahan, “In Europe, Trains Are Full, and More Are on the Way,” New York Times, January 4, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/travel/europe-new-trains.html. “The 10 Fastest High-Speed Trains in the World,” Railway Technology, https://www.railway-technology.com/features/the-10-fastest-high-speed-trains-in-the-world/?cf-view.

Stuck in City Traffic: We’re Numbers 2, 4, 8, and 10

Over thirty years ago, economist Anthony Downs highlighted the problems of automobile congestion in cities and suburbs, with a book titled Stuck in Traffic. A second edition came out in 2004, appropriately titled, Still Stuck in Traffic. In this second edition, Downs noted that “traffic congestion has almost surpassed bad weather as a malady that is universally discussed but rarely improved through public policies,” and that “this constantly intensifying nature of congestion is extremely frustrating to the millions of citizens who daily endure it. They keep asking, ‘Why doesn’t somebody do something about this misery?’”

Building more roads is not the solution, but raising gasoline taxes, raising the prices on city parking lots, congestion price and toll schemes, increasing funding for public transportation are met with little enthusiasm.

In what cities do people spend most of their time stuck in traffic? In a 2022 study, INRIX Research determined that people would be trapped in traffic for 156 hours a year in London. Chicago was second worst (155 hours), then came Paris (138 hours). Boston was 4th (134 hours), New York City was 8th (117 hours), and Philadelphia was 10th (114 hours). Surely, Los Angeles couldn’t be too far behind these top ten.

Sources: Anthony Downs, Stuck in Traffic: Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1992); Still Stuck in Traffic: Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2004), vii. “2022 Global Traffic Scorecard,” INRIX Research, https://inrix.com/press-releases/2022-global-traffic-scorecard-uk/.

Road Quality: We’re Number 17

The US received high marks in terms of road connectivity, ranking Number One in road connectivity, according to a survey conducted by the World Atlas. Altogether, there are 4.2 million miles of highway in the US, including Hawaii and Alaska. Just 1 percent of the road network is made up of the Interstate Highway system; but that 1 percent carries 25 percent of all auto and truck traffic. Along with the Interstate system are 175,000 miles of major roadways, maintained by both the federal government and state governments. About 77 percent of the American roadway is maintained by local governments and 19 percent is maintained by state governments.

The World Economic Forum, through its Executive Opinion Survey, asked 14,000 business leaders in 144 countries to rate the quality of their country’s road system. Just one question was asked: rate the roads on a scale of 1 (underdeveloped) to 7 (extensive and efficient by international standards). In the most recent World Economic Forum survey, the road quality in the US was given a score of 5.5 (out of 7), and the US ranked 17th in the world in quality of its roads. One estimate was that 200,000 miles of major highways were in mediocre condition and in need of critical repair and that nearly 8 percent of bridges were structurally deficient.

Ranking highest in road quality were Singapore, Netherlands, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Japan, and Austria.

Sources: “Top 10 Countries with the Best Road Connectivity,” World Atlas, n.d., https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-10-countries-with-the-best-road-connectivity.html#:~:text=Road%20Network%20In%20The%20United,one%2Dquarter%20of%20the%20traffic. GlobalEconomy.com, https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/roads_quality/; data from World Economic Forum.

Best Climate Performance: We’re Number 52

Since 2005, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) has been grading the climate mitigation performances of sixty countries and the European Union. Germanwatch, NewClimate Institute, and the Climate Action Network developed this independent ranking, drawing on the advice of 450 climate and policy experts, measuring the performance of these countries, which emit some 92 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. The CCPI considers four main factors: greenhouse gas emissions (40 percent of overall score), renewable energy (20 percent), energy use (20 percent), and climate policy (20 percent). The CCPI ranking board decided to leave the first three positions blank on the 2023 ranking, noting that no country had performed well enough to be considered in the highest ranking.

The United States ranked 52nd out of 60 countries. Why is the US so embarrassing low on this ranking? The CCPI recognized the targets and policies for climate action announced by the Biden administration, citing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, with its $21 billion on environmental projects, $7.5 billion for electric vehicles, and $65 billion for improving the power infrastructure and adjustments to renewable energy. It also acknowledges the Biden administration’s net-zero emissions target for 2050 and a 2030 goal of cutting 2005-level greenhouse gases by 50-52 percent. The impact of the Inflation Reduction Act, with its historic emphasis on climate change mitigation, is not factored into this analysis.

The CCPI report concludes that its country experts “welcome the US government’s new commitments. They note the obstructing role the Republican opposition plays in climate politics. However, the experts criticize that some policies lack a mandatory character, and implementation will not be quick enough. The main shortcoming described is that the US will not halt domestic fossil fuel extraction, and there are still fossil fuel subsidies in place.” But the US ranking on the CCPI listing has been worse: last time it was measured, in 2021, the United States sat at 55th place. With a new Trump presidential term, America’s place in the CCPI rankings will surely suffer.

Sources: Our World in Data, https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-per-capita-vs-renewable-electricity?tab=table and Global Carbon Project, https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/. Rachel Hellman, “US Lags in Latest Climate Protection Rankings,” US News, February 28, 2022, https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2022-02-28/denmark-shines-u-s-lags-in-latest-climate-protection-rankings. Climate Change Performance Index 2023, https://ccpi.org/ranking/ (accessed October 14, 2023).

Percentage of Electricity from Nuclear Power: We’re Number 6

The first US commercial nuclear power plant went online in 1957 and most of the subsequent plants were built in the 1970s through the 1990s. At its peak in 2012, there were 104 nuclear reactors in the United States; many of them were built decades earlier and were approaching the end of their useful life. Since 2012, about twenty reactors have been decommissioned and only two new reactors, Vogtle Unit 3 and Unit 4 in Georgia, have gone online. In 2021, there were a total of 93 nuclear power plants, generating nearly 20 percent of America’s electricity.

In 2011, following the nuclear power disaster in Fukushima, Japan, the German government determined that it would close its nuclear facilities. Eight of seventeen units were closed in 2011, and in 2021, six units were still operating. Then by 2023, all such units were shut down, despite protests that the Russian invasion of Ukraine might put Germany’s energy supplies at further risk.

One of the major, unresolved issues for commercial nuclear power plants is the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (1982) had authorized the Department of energy to determine a geologic repository for a permanent disposal; after much political wrangling, the remote and geologically inert site of Yucca Mountain in Nevada was chosen as the permanent disposal site for the entire commercial nuclear industry. This did not sit well with Nevadans, many of whom called the legislation the “Screw Nevada” bill. About $7 billion had been collected from energy companies for nuclear waste depository fund, and most of that had been spent preparing the Yucca Mountain site. But when President Obama took office in 2009, powerful Senate majority leader Harry Reid from Nevada convinced the administration to abandon the Yucca Mountain plan. Congress has not come up with a plan for a permanent storage site since. Meanwhile, some 72,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel, and growing every day, was stored at 80 sites scattered about in thirty-four states.

The United States is not alone in failing to solve the spent fuel problem. “No country, including the United States, has a permanent geologic repository for disposal” of spent nuclear fuel, according to a 2020 Congressional Research Service analysis.

The United States generates 771 TWh of electricity through its 93 nuclear power plants; this accounts for 19.6 percent of all electricity generated throughout the country. China is second with 383 TWh from 55 nuclear power plants, accounting for 5.0 percent of its electricity. France is third with 363 TWh from 56 nuclear plants; but France comes in first place for the percentage of its country’s electricity (69.0) coming from nuclear energy.

Sources: Lance N. Larson, “Nuclear Waste Storage Sites in the United States,” Congressional Research Service, US Congress, April 13, 2020, https://sgp.fas.org/crs/nuke/IF11201.pdf.

World Nuclear Association, https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/nuclear-power-in-the-world-today.aspx

Nuclear Power Generation: We’re Number 1

Energy from Solar Power, New Capacity: We’re Number 2

According to the US Energy Information Agency, just over half of the new US energy capacity generated in 2023 will come from solar power. This will be the most solar capacity added in a single year in the US and the first time that more than half of the US capacity additions are coming from solar. Through the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the EPA launched a $7 billion grant competition for solar energy, targeted for millions of low-income households, a program championed by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.

In 2022, the United States had 204 total Terra-Watt hours (TWh) of solar production; in 2005, that figure was just 0.55 Terra-Watts. (A Terra-Watt hour is enough electricity to fully power 70,000 homes for a year). China is the leader in solar production, with 420 TWh; in 2005 it had just 0.08 TWh. India is the third top generator with 95 TWh, followed by Germany (59), Australia (33.5) and Spain 32.8)

Sources: Wind, Solar, and Batteries Increasingly Account for More New US Power Capacity Additions,” Today in Energy, USEIA, March 6, 2023, https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=55719#:~:text=As%20of%20January%202023%2C%2073.5,in%202023%20is%20solar%20power. “EPA Launches $7 Billion Competition to Bring Low-Cost Solar Energy to More Hard-Working American Families, The White House, June 28, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/cleanenergy/clean-energy-updates/2023/06/28/epa-launches-7-billion-competition-to-bring-low-cost-solar-energy-to-more-hard-working-american-families/; Our World in Data, https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/solar-energy-consumption?tab=chart&country=IND~CHN~AUS~USA~ZAF~ESP~OWID_WRL~DEU~GBR~BRA~FRA~CAN

Energy from Wind Power, New Capacity: We’re Number 2

While many of the wind farms are on land, others are planted in the sea, usually in shallow waters. Several of the barriers to wind farms along coastal waters, particularly in the United States, have been objections to the noise, the detriment to marine life, and the inevitable charges that windfarms just miles off the coast ruin the view. Most recently there have been concerted efforts in Ocean City and Cape May County, New Jersey, to block a ninety-eight-unit windmill farm, which would supply power to half a million homes. But some locals (and outside groups assisting them) are adamantly opposed to windfarms just miles off their coastline. As environmental journalist Kate Selig reported, if the wind farm opponents succeed, “they hope to create a template for derailing some thirty-one offshore wind projects in various stages of development and construction off the East Coast, a key part of President Biden’s plan to reduce greenhouse emissions that are driving global climate change.”

The US falls behind the leading wind power countries in offshore capacity. It currently has 42 MW of offshore capacity, with another 51,400 MW in the pipeline. China is the leader with 31,400 MW of offshore capacity and the United Kingdom is second, with 13,900 MW. One answer might be wind farms far out in the ocean, not anchored to the bottom of the sea, but floating.

Sources: Kate Selig, “The Future of East Coast Wind Power Could Ride On This Jersey Beach Town, Washington Post, August 8, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/08/08/offshore-wind-energy-east-coast/; “Offshore Wind: Market Report,” Clean Power, May 2023, https://cleanpower.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ACP_Offshore_Wind_Market_Report_2023_PUBLIC.pdf.

Total Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions: We’re Number 2; Per Capita Emissions: We’re Number 2

Together, India, China, and the United States contribute 42.6 percent of total emissions; the bottom 100 countries account for just 2.9 percent of emissions. Though India is a major GHG contributor, on a per capita basis this largest country in the world falls well below many industrialized countries. This ranking incorporates the twenty-seven nations of the European Union into one entity. The United States ranks second in both the total amount of GHG emissions and second in per capita emissions. Canada, ranking tenth in total emissions, ranks number one in greenhouse emissions per capita.

In 2022, China led the way with 12,795 Metric tons of CO2, ranking 6th per capita. The United States emitted less than half (6,001 Metric tons) of China’s emissions, but ranked 2nd per capita. India was third in total emissions (3,994), but 10th in per capita emissions. While Canada had the highest greenhouse emissions per capita, when looking at countries outside of the OECD, Saudi Arabia had a much higher per capita emissions than Canada.

Sources: “Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Government of Canada, https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html; World Resources Institute, https://www.wri.org/insights/interactive-chart-shows-changes-worlds-top-10-emitters.

Safest Countries in the World: We’re Number 129

The Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think tank headquartered in Sydney, Australia, produces an annual Global Peace Index (GPI), ranking the safest and most peaceful countries in the world. For 2023, the GPI measured 163 countries using twenty-three different indicators, such as internal and external violent conflicts, level of distrust, political instability, potential for terrorist acts, number of homicides, and military expenditures as percentage of GDP. The United States ranked 129th and has fallen in ranking every year since 2016. The Trump years, the Big Lie, the January 6th insurrection--certainly all these added to the low ranking; so too, did the mass murders, the gun violence, and the internal violence.

Ranking as the safest countries were Iceland, New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic.

In the United States, there seemed to be no end of gun violence. By August 2023, there had been 421 mass murders recorded in the United States, a record pace, along with at least 25,198 persons (118 each day) killed in non-mass murder situation. More than half of those 25,198 used a gun to commit suicide. Of those who died, 879 were teenagers and 170 were children. These figures also include 488 persons killed in police officer-involved shootings, and thirty-four officers killed in the line of duty.

Sources: The Institute for Economics and Peace describes itself as "an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to shifting the world's focus to peace as a positive, achievable and tangible measure of human wellbeing and progress." https://www.economicsandpeace.org; Safest Countries in the World, 2023, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/safest-countries-in-the-world. Kiara Alfonseca, “More than 25,000 People Killed in Gun Violence So Far in 2023,” ABC News, August 3, 2023, https://abcnews.go.com/US/116-people-died-gun-violence-day-us-year/story?id=97382759, citing data from the Gun Violence Archive. The Gun Violence Archive defines “mass shooting” as “four or more victims shot or killed.”

Gun Violence: We’re Number 1

When looking at high-income countries with populations of 10 million or more, the United States ranks number 1 in firearm homicides. Firearm homicide rate is 13 times greater in the United States than in France; 22 times greater than in all the countries of the European Union, and 23 times greater than in Australia, according to data collected by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. In an earlier 2018 Global Burden of Disease study, the United States ranked eighth out of 64 high-income countries and territories for homicides by firearms. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, both US territories, ranked first and third on the list of 64 countries and territories.

In the United States, most homicides are caused by guns. In 2022, some 85 percent of all homicides in America were caused by firearms; but in Canada, it was only 40 percent; in Australia, just 11 percent; and England and Wales, only 4 percent.

Sources: Leach-Kemon and Sirull, “On Gun Violence, the US is an Outlier.” “Global Mortality from Firearms, 1990-2016,” JAMA, 2018, 320 (8): 792-814, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2698492;“How Many US Mass Shooting Have There Been in the 2023? BBC News, August 26, 2023, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081; Statistics Canada and CDC 2021; ONS (England and Wales), April 2021-March 2022; Australian Institute of Criminology, July 2021-June 2022.