January 2008

Yes, This is Real Congestion Pricing for Airports*

Michael Giberson *Well, almost real congestion pricing. It may not be the real thing, but it is a reasonable facsimile and a step in the right direction. It is not quite the real thing, because, as I observed last time, the FAA “will not allow airport authorities to charge prices sufficient to balance demand with …

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More Coverage of the Gridwise Olympic Peninsula Project and Smart Grid

Lynne Kiesling Since last week there’s been more discussion of the GridWise Olympic Peninsula Project that I discussed last week: a Business Week article on the project and a Gristmill post, a CNN Money article, the Solve Climate blog, and an Associated Press article that ran in USA Today. The last article also quotes me, …

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Congestion Fees Coming to Airports?

Michael Giberson The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing to change its policy toward landing fees to “provide greater flexibility to operators of congested airports to use landing fees to provide incentives to air carriers to use the airport at less congested times or to use alternate airports to meet regional air service needs.” As explained …

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Regulation of Networks when Networks Cross Political Borders

Michael Giberson The New Jersey experience illustrates one other key insight into regulation of a network. In a network industry such as electricity, where the network extends across state lines, it is possible for one state to exert significance externalities on others. The siting of transmission lines or an electricity generator in one state can …

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Programmable Thermostat Regulations in California: Big Brother or Control Freaks?

Lynne Kiesling Over the past week there has been quite a discussion online of the California Energy Commission’s proposal requiring mandatory customer thermostat reponse to emergency demand reduction signals. This New York Times article from Friday also discusses the CEC proposal, as does this ABC news affiliate story from San Francisco. See also the discussion …

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Package Bidding Auction Design for the Fcc’s Upcoming 700 Mhz Spectrum Auction

Michael Giberson I was wrong a few weeks ago when I wrote, “While the FCC has sponsored research and considered deployment [of package bidding and combinatorial auctions], so far they have been dissuaded by the complexity of the auction design and opposition from commenters.” The FCC has tried package bidding once before, in 2003, when …

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