Michael Giberson From the Houston Chronicle‘s coverage of CERAWeek: … later in the day, ConocoPhillips’ [CEO James] Mulva drew applause from the crowd when he blasted “hydrocarbon deniers” for questioning the potential of natural gas to meet future U.S. energy needs. In an interview afterward, he said he wasn’t necessarily calling out the administration. “It …
Michael Giberson From a NERC press release: The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and the Florida Reliability Coordinating Council (FRCC) have reached an agreement regarding the role of the FRCC Reliability Coordinator in the February 26, 2008 power outage that left nearly one million homes and businesses in …
Nerc, Ferc, and Frcc Agree on 2008 Florida Blackout Read More »
Michael Giberson The New York Times has a fascinating story on the solar power industry boom and bust in Spain created by shifting public policies. Similar effects have been observed from shifts in subsidy support for renewable power development in the United States, though because the subsidy was smaller and spread over a larger area …
Shifting Policy Extinguishes Short-lived Spanish Solar Boom, Fortunately Read More »
Michael Giberson Today ten companies announce “Friends of the Supergrid,” a group dedicated to promoting policy support for a massive power grid to link offshore wind resource areas to European power markets. The project would also enhance the ability to trade power between regions. The group complements the “North Seas Countries’ Offshore Grid Initiative” announced …
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities: European Electric Grid Expansion Version Read More »
Michael Giberson The Houston Chronicle has added another voice to its roster of energy bloggers: Pat Wood III. Wood is former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and before that chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (though around here they usually list those two items the other way. In order of importance, …
Michael Giberson At ThinkMarkets, Roger Koppl urges supporters of liberty to get into market design. In effect Koppl says: it isn’t especially useful to oppose the growth of government and hold high the beacon of freedom and prosperity, if there is no way to get from here to there. What is useful is finding a …
Michael Giberson We’ve mentioned the “natural resource curse” a few times here. Harvard’s Jeffrey Frankel provides a recent and thorough overview of the literature in “The Natural Resource Curse: A Survey” with a helpful focus on what policies resource rich companies can consider to mitigate the curse. Abstract: It is striking how often countries with …
Frankel Surveys the Natural Resource Curse Literature Read More »
Michael Giberson The Wall Street Journal published a lengthy article by Russel Gold on the behind-the-scenes struggle over cost allocation and performance obligations between wind power producers and conventional generators. Tension over how variable resources participate in markets have been simmering for years, but wind power and other intermittent resources have been too small to …
Wind Power and Natural Gas-fired Power and Power Market Design Read More »
Michael Giberson Robert Rapier on Bloom Energy. Jumping straight to the end, his conclusion: Bloom Energy looks like both Plug Power and Range Fuels to me. It is a company that is attempting to produce energy cheaper than all those who came before using known technology – and using hype to attract investors. And if …
Rapier on Bloom Energy: Hype is a Two-edged Sword Read More »
Michael Giberson Michael Finney observes that Girl Scout cookies sell at different prices in different locations, and he asks (tongue in cheek), is it “Girl Scout cookie price gouging?” No, actually it is more like “zone pricing“ price discrimination – setting the price to a level that the local market will bear. (EDITED, see comments …
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