April 2008

Paying Higher Electric Bills Under “Deregulation” for Past Choices by Regulators and Regulated Utilities

Michael Giberson The Washington Post today contains a story titled, “Decade of Deregulation Felt in Climbing Bills“: As they watch their bills climb, electricity customers in the Washington region might be surprised to know they are paying costs that have nothing to do with the rising price of fuel. Virginians are paying Dominion Power tens …

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EZ-Zone? Freeflow? Would Congestion Pricing by Another Name, Smell Sweeter?

Michael Giberson Tom Weber said that neither word in the phrase “congestion pricing” is too upbeat, and strung together “the combination evokes thoughts of opening one’s wallet while suffering a sinus headache.” He suggests that the unappealing phrase may have had something to do with the failure of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan for …

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Lobbying for Wind and Solar Power Tax Credits: Hurry “We’re Looking at 116,000 Jobs at Risk”

Michael Giberson The Washington Post reports on their hometown industry – lobbying Congress – in a report on efforts by the wind and solar power industry to have tax credits renewed. Some of the quotes have me wondering whether John Whitehead has had any success with his “lost green jobs challenge.” Here, for example, is …

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Becker and Posner on Food Prices and the New Neo-malthusians

Michael Giberson At the Becker-Posner Blog, the authors tackle rising food prices and the latest Neo-Malthusians concerns that the world is reaching the limits of the earth to produce food. Curiously, both cite the thoroughly flogged old Neo-Malthusian book, Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb, but no current examples. Gary Becker writes to claim the Neo-Malthusians …

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New York Post on Gambling on Politics

Michael Giberson The New York Post explains political prediction markets in this 2 1/2 minute video clip featuring the Intrade exchange, among others, and including a interview with Yahoo! prediction market scientist David Pennock. See also Chris Masse’s comments on the piece at Midas Oracle and David Pennock’s comments at Oddhead Blog. ADDENDUM: Also on …

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Collusion in Ascending Price Auctions: Rggi Auction Designers Respond to Comments

Michael Giberson In a post at Common Tragedies, Erica Meyers reports the release of an addendum from the RGGI auction design team that responds to certain of the comments filed in response to their earlier report. As she reports, “One of the more interesting findings is that ‘clock auctions’ may be more susceptible to explicit …

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Latest Farmer Vs. Rancher Epic from Texas Centers on Ethanol

Michael Giberson An article in the Houston Chronicle reports that the high price of corn is putting the squeeze on the cattle feedlot business: [John] Van Pelt, the manager of a cattle feedlot in this town 50 miles south of Amarillo, is now paying $215 a ton for cattle feed — double what he spent …

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Do Utilities Love Cap-and-Trade?

Michael Giberson In a post titled “The $100 Billion Windfall: Why Utilities Love Cap-and-Trade“, Environment Capital notes the release of a new study by Point Carbon, financed by the WWF, which sought to estimate the “potential and scale of windfall profits in the power sector in selected countries (UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland) during …

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