March 2011

New Atmospheric Research on Contrails

Lynne Kiesling When I think about climate, greenhouse gases, carbon policy etc., I always worry about the certainty that people (typically politicians) want to attach to models (actually, that statement holds for macroeconomic models too, for the same reasons). The global climate is an incredibly complex system, comprising many individual agents and local systems that …

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Commercial, Merchant Compressed-air Energy Storage Plant Under Development?

Michael Giberson Wind power RFP processes* are common enough these days, typically driven by renewable energy mandates placed on utilities. A recent wind power RFP announcement out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is different. A new company, Chamisa Energy, has initiated an RFP seeking wind power to pair up with a planned compressed-air energy storage …

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How Can Property Rights in Subsurface Water Work in West Texas?

Michael Giberson Texans who have drawn there water supplies from the vast but shrinking Ogallala Aquifer are engaged in a complex process of clarifying and/or renegotiating a more exact notion of just what rights they have to access the resource. A story in the Sunday Lubbock Avalanche-Journal provides an update. Some clever “enviropreneurs”, to invoke …

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Update: Industry, Environmental Group Working on Shale Gas Drilling Rules

Michael Giberson Last November we noted that industry and environmental groups in Texas were working together on fracking disclosure rules. Earlier this month a bill was introduced in the Texas House that would establish disclosure rules for fracking fluids. Kate Galbraith reports in The Texas Tribune, “Texas Could Require Disclosure of Drilling Chemicals“: Hydraulic fracturing, an …

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Dignity and Liberty for Ordinary People Brings Social Growth and Development

Michael Giberson At AidWatch, an interview with Dierdre McCloskey, author of Bourgeois Dignity: “Don’t be snobbish towards merchants & entrepreneurs, and you’ll develop.” Short, and to the point, so likely worth a few minutes of your time to read. Here is a shorter and even more to the point summary of her message: History shows …

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Concentrated Benefits, Dispersed Costs: Million Dollar Fraud That No Victim Has Strong Incentive to Fight

Michael Giberson Christopher Mims explains a “A Web Scam that Makes $500,000 a Month” in MIT’s Technology Review. In essence, a web programmer set up websites to generate revenue off of pay-per-click or pay-per-impression online advertising. That isn’t the interesting part, since many folks have tried to scam money this way. The interesting part is …

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