Lynne Kiesling The regulatory policies of the past century in the electricity industry have enshrined the regulatory compact: in return for being granted a monopoly franchise with legal entry barriers, the regulated utility assumed an obligation to serve all customers in their service territory who desired service. The compensation received for this bargain is an …
The Regulatory Compact and Its Consequences for Innovation Read More »
Michael Giberson It seems I may have left off a critical point in my comment on regulation and the apparent rebirth of nuclear power. Following the insightful commentary in Loren Steffy’s column in the Houston Chronicle, I highlighted that in many cases stockholders would assume the risks of cost overruns or poor performance, rather than …
Michael Giberson A few months ago I posted notice here of the Arizona Corporation Commission’s decision to reject a proposed powerline from the middle of Arizona into southern California. Commissioners were saying things like they refused to “hurt Arizona utility customers to benefit Californians” and opposed the idea of becoming “an energy farm for California.” …
Arizona Commission’s Negative Power Line, Round Ii Read More »
Michael Giberson A great deal of energy is currently being expended in Europe debating the merits of further unbundling of vertically-integrated electric utilities in the EU. “This is unfortunate,” said Jean-Michel Glachant and François Lévêque, in a post on the EU Energy Policy Blog, on two grounds. First, because the economics of the matter are …
Michael Giberson Power from the people, story from the Christian Science Monitor: For two architecture students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., the sound of footsteps is an echo of energy gone to waste. They figure that the stomp of every footfall gives off enough power to light two 60-watt bulbs for …
Michael Giberson Discussions of internal corporate prediction markets have sometimes pointed out that open, anonymous participation can lead to better information flow within the corporation. See, for example, Jed Christiansen’s write-up of the recent Consensus Point conference on prediction markets, particularly his notes on the presentations of Dave Perry and Fortune Elkins. A lot of …
Prediction Markets and the Flow of Information Inside Organizations Read More »
Lynne Kiesling As has been pointed out here, at Environmental Economics, and elsewhere, the ethanol subsidies included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 have wrought a host of unintended consequences: the shift in demand increased corn prices, inducing farmers to substitute out of growing soybeans and into growing corn. This production substitution was not …
Proprietary, Sweeter Tomates: Another Unintended Consequence of Ethanol Subsidies Read More »
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