February 2010

Happy 201st for Charles Darwin (and Abe Lincoln)

Michael Giberson It’s the anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, which means it is Darwin Day! Darwin Day is a recently instituted celebration intended to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwinon February 12, 1809. The day is used to highlight Darwin’s contribution to science and to promote science in general. Some may believe that Darwin Day …

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Are Carbon Credit Markets Inherently Prone to Fraud and Manipulation?

Michael Giberson The headlines about fraud in Europe’s carbon credit trading system (2010: “Fraud Besets E.U. Carbon Trade System,” 2009: “Europol: $7.4 Billion Lost from Carbon Trading Fraud in Europe“) seem to confirm what some critics of carbon credit trading have been saying all along (2007: “Carbon Trading Open Invitation To Fraud,” 2007: “The greenhouse …

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Private Management of the Commons: Parking Spots and Chicago Snow

Michael Giberson No doubt that since Elinor Ostrom won a Nobel Prize last year for, among other things, her work on decentralized approaches to common pool resource issues, a small legion of social science graduate students are looking for new cases of non-governmental management of common pool resources. Here is an example supplied by Fred …

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Pg&e Spending Big to Protect Its Monopoly Against Municipal Aggregation

Michael Giberson For a number of years, state law in California has permitted cities or counties to arrange to become the electric power service provider for their areas – an arrangement where they would be responsible for acquiring the electric energy needed for consumers in their areas while the local utility would continue to operate …

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By the Way You Look Fantastic in Your Car of Audi Plastic

Michael Giberson Audi said its “Green Police” commercial, shown during the Super Bowl, was meant to be funny.  Turns out that neither the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council, nor at least some environmentalists, were amused.  I found the ad annoying – I’m not sure why – but anything that can unite the American …

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Georgia Electric Consumers Want Competition to Help Protect Against Higher Prices, Just Like They Have for Natural Gas

Michael Giberson From WTVM-9: Latrese Brown, a Cusseta [Georgia] resident, gathered a group of people who believe Sumter EMC is ripping them off. “Not only mine but my entire community light bills are outrageous high, they’re more than our mortgages, more than our rent, more than our car note,” complains Brown. … The citizens of …

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Tres Amigas Wants to Take Cheap Electric Power Away from Hard-Working Texas Families

Michael Giberson I spent the middle of last week in Austin at the University of Texas-Law conference on wind, solar and geothermal energy law, and as a side bonus got to hear some informal, Austin-based commentary on the Tres Amigas proposal to interconnect the Eastern, Western, and Texas electric grids. It will give you some …

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A Disgusting Display of Bureaucratic Force from the Chicago Department of Public Health

Lynne Kiesling This is so vile, so disgusting that I am literally nauseated at my desk as I write. One of the ways that independent chefs, caterers and confectioners economize on their substantial fixed costs is by sharing kitchens. In Chicago, the business license treatment of such kitchens from the Chicago Department of Public Health …

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Matt Welch on Monopoly: Joseph Schumpeter, Call Your Office!

Lynne Kiesling Matt Welch channels his inner Joseph Schumpeter (and his inner Lynne, while we’re at it …) in his post this morning about the evanescence of monopoly. The grit in Matt’s oyster is yesterday’s NYT oped from former Microsoft vice president Dick Brass bemoaning Microsoft’s lack of an innovation-facilitating corporate culture. As someone who …

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