{"id":16237,"date":"2016-01-10T16:23:16","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T21:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=16237"},"modified":"2016-01-10T16:25:43","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T21:25:43","slug":"rice-universitys-baker-institute-and-the-academic-cover-it-provides-for-fossil-fuel-interests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=16237","title":{"rendered":"Rice University\u2019s Baker Institute and the Academic Cover It Provides for Fossil Fuel Interests"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2016\/01\/10\/rice-university-s-baker-institute-and-academic-cover-it-provides-fossil-fuel-interests\" target=\"_blank\">Rice University\u2019s Baker Institute and the Academic Cover It Provides for Fossil Fuel Interests<\/a><\/h3>\n<article class=\"node-10207 node node-blog node-promoted view-mode-full clearfix\">\n<header>\n<p class=\"submitted desktop-only\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/styles\/full_width_blog_image\/public\/blogimages\/Screen%20Shot%202016-01-08%20at%202.10.40%20PM.png?itok=fvzlgsyJ\" alt=\"\" width=\"826\" height=\"406\" \/><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"horizontal-social-bar horizontal-social-bar-top clearfix\">\n<div class=\"horizontal-share-left\">When thinking about influential academic policy think tanks, Rice University\u2019s Baker Institute for Public Policy doesn\u2019t necessarily come first to mind. Slowly and steadily, however, the institute has turned into one of the nation\u2019s most powerful outfits. In the 2009 \u201cGlobal Think Tank Index Report,\u201d a comprehensive yearly ranking by the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Think Tanks and Civil Society\u2019s Program, the institute was ranked 37th amongst top\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">US<\/span>\u00a0think tanks. By last year\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/repository.upenn.edu\/think_tanks\/\" target=\"_blank\">rankings<\/a>, it was up to number 18. Significantly, on the specific list Top Energy and Resource Policy Think Tanks, the institute was already ranked 4th\u00a0in the\u00a0country.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>Boasting $9.9 million in revenue in 2015 alone, the institute is located in the heart of Rice\u2019s campus, housed in an impressive redbrick columned edifice that mixes classic beaux arts elements and byzantine\u00a0ornamentation.<\/p>\n<p>Established in 1993 by James Baker\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">III<\/span>, former Secretary of State during the Bush Sr. administration, it aims at building a \u201cbridge between the world of ideas and the world of action.\u201d After retiring from public service, Baker\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/bakerinstitute.org\/the-history-of-the-baker-institute\/\" target=\"_blank\">envisioned<\/a>\u00a0a place where scholars \u201cshould learn firsthand from statesmen of the practical imperatives that impact policy,\u201d while \u201cstatesmen and policymakers should hear rigorous, logical \u2013 and always practical \u2013 scholarly analyses of how to improve the work they\u00a0do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rice was a natural home for his intellectual aspirations. The Baker family has longstanding ties to the Houston-based university. Baker\u2019s grandfather and namesake was the first Chair of the Rice Board of Trustees, a position he held, astoundingly,\u00a0between 1891 to\u00a01941.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after establishing the institute, Baker chose as its director longtime friend and former\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">US<\/span>\u00a0ambassador Edward Djerejian, who served in the Foreign Service during Baker\u2019s tenure in the State Department. Djerejian, a widely respected expert on foreign affairs with three decades of diplomatic experience, has headed the institute mightily ever since.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rice University\u2019s Baker Institute and the Academic Cover It Provides for Fossil Fuel Interests When thinking about influential academic policy think tanks, Rice University\u2019s Baker Institute for Public Policy doesn\u2019t necessarily come first to mind. Slowly and steadily, however, the institute has turned into one of the nation\u2019s most powerful outfits. In the 2009 \u201cGlobal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[11579,5317,11577,11580,11578,1194],"class_list":["post-16237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-baker-institute-for-public-policy","tag-desmog-blog","tag-itai-vardi","tag-james-baker-iii","tag-rice-university","tag-secretary-of-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16237"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16240,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16237\/revisions\/16240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}