Lynne Kiesling My colleague Shane Greenstein does very interesting work on industrial organization and networks in Internet-related industries. These insights also bubble up when he is reflecting on his personal experience in his recent family holiday travels, as related on his blog. Here he relates what they found on their recent travels to northern Wyoming, …
Lynne Kiesling While I am musing on the problems with the traditional regulatory model in electricity, as in my prior renewables feed-in reverse auction post, I am going to pile on (yes, it is like shooting fish in a barrel, but it’s the first day after a long holiday weekend, so cut me some slack, …
Another Reason Why Retail Regulation is Obsolete: Atrocious Incentives Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Proponents say yes, but I’m not convinced. Here’s the story: the California Public Utilities Commission is considering some regulatory innovations to increase the share of renewables in the state’s generation portfolio, including a reverse-auction procurement solicitation for the provision of renewable power: In what might be a world first, the California Public Utilities …
Is a Reverse Auction Feed-in Tariff “Market-Based”? Read More »
Michael Giberson Rebecca Smith, in the Wall Street Journal, surveys the current state of nuclear power’s future in the United States. “Times are exciting for nuclear,” says Ronaldo Szilard, director of nuclear science and engineering at the Idaho National Lab, a part of the U.S. Energy Department. “There are lots of options being explored.” But …
Michael Giberson In the Wall Street Journal, an interview with Texas Tech University football coach Mike Leach: WSJ: You want a 64-team playoff system. That seems crazy. Mr. Leach: It’s only crazy if you are in Division I football. There’s nothing new about this playoff stuff. It would be like crediting me with inventing fire. …
College Football Playoffs and Other Ideas Mike Leach Likes Read More »
Michael Giberson Tyler Cowen said if he were exiled from the United States and had to live semi-permanently in another country, assuming a non-English speaking country to make it interesting, he’d select Berlin or Cologne in Germany. My thought? Copenhagen. Denmark scores high on assessments of economic freedom (here and here) and political freedoms (here). …
Lynne Kiesling Charles Darwin’s great-great-granddaughter, Sarah Darwin, is a biologist, and she’s just embarked on a recreation of her great-great-grandfather’s seminal voyage on the Beagle that induced him to develop his theory of evolution. In addition to that being just downright cool, she’s doing it on a really neat ship: The voyage will be made …
Michael Giberson In Grist, Adam Browing asks, “Does the Wall Street Journal employ anyone who understands energy markets?” Browning’s question and his answer seem just a little off, as I’ll discuss below, but first an excerpt from Browning: Actually, I think they do. I think Keith Johnson knows quite a bit about energy markets. Which …
Michael Giberson At Stumbling and Mumbling Chris Dillow ruminates on “Norms, agency, and competition,” which is just some fancy econo-speak for a post about why football coaches prefer conventional strategies that reduce the chance of their team winning. Dillow notes David Romer’s work (via James Kwak) on American football, which shows coaches punt too often …
Michael Giberson An economist is quoted in Platts’ Megawatt Daily commenting on a proposal within ERCOT to apply the same performance standards to wind farms as apply to other generators: On the one hand, it is desirable to have all market players working under the same rules, but on the other hand, rules are usually …
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