Lynne Kiesling This Marketplace story from Wednesday does a really good job of explaining the fundamental economics of new oil field discovery. The context for the story is BP’s discovery of a new oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the largest discoveries in the past two decades. Part of the challenge, though, …
Michael Giberson John Petersen at AltEnergyStocks comments on a recent analysis by the U.S. Postal Service of the economics of converting to an electric vehicle fleet. Petersen observes that, “after years of reading up-beat promotional materials that talk about ten-year battery lives and seven- to ten-year payback periods, it was refreshing to see a more …
Lynne Kiesling As the demand for hybrid vehicles increases, the consequences of that increased demand flow through to markets for their inputs, some of which are finite natural resources themselves. Increased hybrid vehicle production raises the demand for rare metals, increasing their prices and threatening short-run shortages. Among the rare earths that would be most …
Unintended Consequences, Hybrid Vehicles Edition Read More »
Michael Giberson Geoff Styles (“Can Solar Compete?“) observes two reports from MIT’s Technology Review: one from August 2009 that says cost reductions achieved in the solar power industry “have made solar power cheaper than the natural-gas-powered plants used to produce extra electricity to meet demand on hot summer days,” and another from the September/October 2009 …
Solar Makes Financial Sense in Austin, if You Are Subsidized… Read More »
Michael Giberson So I was quietly reading about Austin, Texas electric power developments in the Austin American-Statesman (“Mueller becoming a lab for energy: Research plans, neighbors’ efforts converging“) when I stumbled across a remark of such – I don’t know what to call it – irony? Orwellian newspeak? Not quite sure what to say, so …
Don’t Worry, the City Council Will Plusgood Monitor Big Brother to Prevent Abuse Read More »
Michael Giberson According to a new paper by Jim Bushnell, Ben Hobbs and Frank Wolak, “the desire of [state] legislatures and state PUCs to protect consumers from wholesale price volatility comes at a cost we believe few consumers would be willing to pay if it were made explicit, higher annual electricity bills.” And it isn’t …
State Legislatures and Pucs Prefer High Annual Electricity Bills for Retail Customers Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Remember back in October 2008 when I wrote about Andy Stanford-Clark and his tweeting house? And in July 2009 when I wrote about the German company Yellow Strom and its applications to enable its customers to use Twitter and Google’s Power Meter to increase their electricity information and manage their consumption? Now, via …
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