Michael Giberson On the Washington Monthly site, Kevin Drum took the occasion of a New York Times story on California’s new greenhouse gases law to praise California for its dedication to energy efficiency and conservation. Drum reported a decline in per capita energy use in the state since 1970, which happened, he said, “largely because …
California’s Dedication to Efficiency and Conservation Read More »
Lynne Kiesling WOXY and I started up in Oxford, Ohio at the same time, 1983. Without WOXY my college life would have been miserable (OK, a little hyperbole, but just go with it); with WOXY, it was independent, fun, challenging, intense, at least in terms of the music I listened to. WOXY was the glue …
Lynne Kiesling A follow-up to my recent musings on the health benefits of tea, one of my favorite beverages and daily rituals: innovation is occurring in the bagged tea market. This NYT article on new tea bag designs is very interesting, whether you are a tea drinker or not. Most people are familiar with the …
Tea Bags: Consumer Marketing and Product Innovation Read More »
Jim Hamilton has a a great post on the fundamentals underlying his correct prediction of falling gasoline prices. Lots of great information about the connection between spot and forward prices, and what you can infer from forward prices about expectations. He also discusses the reasons for this relatively precipitous decline in retail gasoline prices. So …
Michael Giberson Maryland’s highest court has ruled that the state’s legislature overstepped its authority when it passed a law firing the five members of the Public Service Commission and directing the Governor to appoint replacements from a legislature-selected list of candidates. All is not yet sweetness and light in Maryland, however, as one prominent gubernatorial …
Maryland Court Says Legislature Overstepped Authority in Regulatory Battle Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Mike’s post about ethanol and fuel economy raises an important general point: fuels and the technologies for burning them are strong complements. Engines are not one-size-fits-all fits with different fuels, but are highly customized. We see this in history, too. The move from the use of whale oil for lighting to kerosene for …
Michael Giberson Consumer Reports magazine put a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe flexible-fuel vehicle running on E85 (an 85 percent ethanol/15 percent gasoline mix) through a battery of tests, and concludes it will cost consumers more than a gasoline burner. A chief limitation comes from ethanol’s lower energy content, which means that vehicles running on ethanol will …
Lynne Kiesling Hate the thought of checking your bag just for some shampoo, toothpaste and moisturizer? Enter My Wet Stuff, a new company devoted to delivering travel-size toiletries to your hotel. As we ramp up a brand-new company for a brand-new market need, deliveries will begin on September 29, 2006. After that, only 3 days …
Travel Toiletry Entrepreneurship: I Knew It Would Happen Read More »
Lynne Kiesling I was just saying to a couple of colleagues yesterday that one of the things we take almost as axiomatic in economics-that prices are a function of expectations of future supply and demand-is little understood by laypeople. Oil markets recently have provided a good example of that interaction. Take, for example, this Bloomberg …
Michael Giberson What makes an old power plant new again? It is a complicated question, possibly deeply philosophic and suggestive of a zen koan. Perhaps the answer is that there is no answer. Unfortunately, that answer isn’t good enough for public policy. The Clean Air Act requires new generators to get permits, and even old …
Judge Posner on Incentives and the Clean Air Act Read More »
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