Duggan Flanakin

Duggan Flanakin is Senior Policy Analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow. A former Senior Fellow with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Mr. Flanakin authored definitive works on the creation of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and on environmental education in Texas. A brief history of his multifaceted career appears in his book, "Infinite Galaxies: Poems from the Dugout."

Wright and Burgum – Trump’s Energy Tiger Team

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Back in January 2025, during the confirmation process for President Trump’s Cabinet nominees, Wyoming Senator John Barrasso condemned the Biden Administration’s “regulatory rampage” that resulted in “painfully high prices for food and fuel.” Barrasso called energy “the master resource” and linked control of energy production the key to controlling the nation’s future. And then he said, “Governor […]

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CFS CEO Pooh-Poohs Claim Fusion Is Not Worth the Money

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Just as Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a company spun off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2018, was announcing that its mission to build a compact fusion power plant (the SPARC) based on the ARC tokamak design was nearing completion, a team of engineers from ETH Zurich (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) were throwing

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Wastewater Maintenance Fails the Smell Test

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Imagine holding fragile assets worth a trillion dollars and letting them deteriorate to a point where their actual value is vastly diminished. America’s sewers — including nearly 17,500 wastewater treatment plants — are overall not being properly maintained. Over the past decade alone, the renewal and replacement rate for large capital wastewater projects decreased from

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Is America on the Verge of a Nuclear Renaissance?

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It has been more than seven years since President Donald Trump signed the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA) into law – and it has taken all seven years (including four during the Biden Administration) for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to issue a final rule implementing its provisions. Even the Washington Post admits that the new Part

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Will the US Senate Stall Much-Needed Permitting Reforms?

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In a last-gasp flurry of activity, the 119th House of Representatives in December moved forward a bevy of bills aimed at shortening the time frame and the costs required for federal permits for infrastructure projects, many of which are deemed vital to national security. That’s the good news. The bad news is that these bills

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Time to Build Reactors Fueled By Nuclear Waste

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According to noted stock trader Ross Givens, many investors are pouring money into nuclear energy stocks that may never deliver. Innovative generation IV and V reactor designs remain unapproved by a slow-moving federal government. Yet investors remain hopeful that this bottleneck will soon be removed.   In the early years of America’s nuclear power industry,

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Japan Tries Out Osmotic Energy

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Residents of the Japanese coastal city of Fukuoka are pioneering the world’s first full-sized osmotic power plant — which generates electricity by mixing fresh water with saltwater. The plant, which opened on August 5, generates about 880,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to run a nearby desalination facility and supply about 220 nearby homes. The concept of osmotic power is

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