Bloomberg

“Many businesses spend huge capital on things like diesel,” said Nigeria-born Rita Okoroafor, assistant professor at Texas A&M University. “Electricity access is the main hindrance for economic growth in Nigeria.”

The use of robots in emergency situations is hardly new. Police bomb squads have relied on ground robots since the 1980s, but their deployment became more widespread in the early 2000s, according to Robin Murphy, a professor emeritus of computer science and engineering at Texas A&M University. What makes Spot stand out, she said, is its four-legged design — giving it far greater agility and dexterity than traditional robots that move on tracks or wheels.

“That’s why the buyout approach is necessary — it’s the only way to get existing structures out” of harm’s way, said Shannon Van Zandt, a housing equity researcher at Texas A&M University, who has advocated for a state plan.

While the majority of American beef is produced domestically, the US routinely imports young cattle from Mexico to fatten up in American feedlots, says David Anderson, a professor and livestock economist at Texas A&M University. The supply of those cattle, the equivalent of about 4% of US calf production, has been intermittently cut off since November because of the threat the screwworm poses. “On the margin, that’s a bunch of animals,” he says. “That’s contributing to high prices.”