The United Nations has declared March 3 to be World Wildlife Day. It’s a good opportunity to reflect on the problems of wildlife poaching, which, as Ashok Rao wrote recently, is a moral, social, and political problem. But, as Virginia Postrel pointed out in her then-NYT Economic Scene column in 2000, it’s also an economic …
Michael Giberson In the comments on yesterday’s post on the Jevons Paradox, Rick Lightburn notes an article on the rebound effect by the Rocky Mountain Institute, “The ‘Rebound Effect’: A Perennial Controversy Rises Again” (and see a follow up on the RMI blog). The RMI article links to and responds to, among other things, a comprehensive …
Michael Giberson Given the preponderance of government energy policies aimed at promoting technical efficiency, a careful consideration of the Jevons Paradox is in order. I’ve spent some time this summer reading about William Stanley Jevons, one of the three 19th-century economists co-credited with sparking the marginal revolution, and especially Jevon’s book The Coal Question. Most recently I’ve …
Efficiency, Conservation, and the Inescapable Jevons Paradox Read More »
Michael Giberson The most detailed study of a prepaid power program in the United States is EPRI’s “Paying Upfront: A Review of Salt River Project’s M-Power Prepaid Program.” The report provides a good overview and assessment of the program. See the abstract, copied below, for more of a description of the content. One issue of …
Michael Giberson John Tierney’s column, “When Energy Efficiency Sullies the Environment,” in the New York Times examines the rebound effect and some of the broader consequences of trying to promote conservation through policies inducing energy efficiency. Some of the biggest rebound effects occur when new economic activity results from energy-efficient technologies that reduce the cost …
Michael Giberson The Wall Street Journal reports that a program to cut energy consumption by subsidizing consumer purchases of compact fluorescent light bulbs is not working out as planned. I think we can summarize this as: regulator approves cost recovery for subsidy program to reduce energy consumption, program doesn’t work as well as expected, so regulator approves …
Compact Fluorescent Bulbs Not Living Up to California Program’s Expectations Read More »
Michael Giberson A Financial Times article discusses advances in the application of LED technology, both for television and other display technologies and for general lighting applications. Pete Moran of the DCM venture capital firm says LEDs have advantages such as longer life and greater efficiency compared with both incandescents and the energy-saving compact fluorescents with …
Taking out a Mortgage to Buy Led Lights for Your Home Read More »
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