Diversify That Fuel Portfolio

RAND has released a report on the consequences of increasingly relying on natural gas as the primary fuel for generating electricity. This very good article in the San Jose Mercury News does a nice job of summarizing the risks inherent in such non-diversification, which the report highlights. Hedge, hedge, hedge; it may mean tolerating spending more for other fuels, or using more dirty fuels than we might otherwise, but when we think about fuel choice we are trading off on lots of dimensions of costs and benefits — stability of fuel prices and supplies, pollution, and many others that will vary from person to person.