Lynne Kiesling Silicon is an important input into solar panels, as well as its well-known uses in computer chips. Not surprisingly, silicon prices have risen over the past couple of years. A couple of weeks ago IBM announced that it has figured out a way to scrub information from waste silicon chips so they can …
Lynne Kiesling Been really busy lately with the day job, but I didn’t want to miss Dave Weigel’s Reason Hit & Run post on candy as a gateway drug: High school rules banning sweet stuff have created a lucrative and illicit trade for sucrose. Who could have predicted it? Why is it so difficult for …
Michael Giberson How many times do we have to say it? Online secondary ticket markets can be good for teams and fans. Fans can buy tickets earlier, knowing if they have a conflict, there is an easy way to recoup at least some of their price. Teams can therefore sell more tickets to fans earlier, …
Michael Giberson An article online at the Wall Street Journal (free!) provides a quick overview of green power options available to retail customers. Typically consumers pay a small premium for green power, but in Austin consumers participating in the GreenChoice program actually gain a small discount. (Higher natural gas prices have driven up the cost …
Green Power Options for Retailed Consumers Described Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Over at Marginal Revolution Alex reveals that he has gotten a flu shot, and uses that fact to draw out a brief analysis of the external benefits that he does not entirely get to enjoy from his shot: his shot reduces contagion, reducing illness in others, which has only a small benefit that …
Michael Giberson LiveScience highlights a short article on the growth in the use of electric bikes in China, a development that comes with environmental costs and benefits (and clearly a lot of personal mobility benefits for the owners). University of Tennessee-Knoxville professor Christopher Cherry reports on his research: Chinese cities are expanding and becoming more …
Electric Bikes in China Bring Costs and Benefits Read More »
Michael Giberson I stumbled across another blog post on the New York Times article discussed here earlier in the week. Rich Sweeny, at Common Tragedies, wants to inject a little more research-based thinking into the discussion: What I really wanted to add to this debate, though, is a discussion of how elecricity costs have been …
Michael Giberson The team working on the auction design for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) has released their final report. The design group is top-notch and the report itself looks pretty good at first glance. What really stood out on my first look at the report, however, was the 50+ page annotated bibliography on …
Auction Design for Selling Co2 Emissions: Check out Their Annotated Bibliography Read More »
Lynne Kiesling An article by Jeffrey Ball in today’s Wall Street Journal (subs. required) does the best job I’ve seen to date of capturing the nuances and tensions in the economic and policy dynamics of rising energy costs and concerns about the environmental effects of energy consumption. The article focuses on Dow Chemical and its …
Lynne Kiesling This morning finds oil prices hitting $98 per barrel, amid inventory data showing that U.S. inventories have fallen for another week (that’s three in a row). So is this the most expensive oil has ever been in real terms? “The $100 jackpot is imminent now, despite the fact there aren’t really oil fundamentals …
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