December 2011

Holiday Music Encore

Lynne Kiesling As a quick follow-up on my earlier post on music, harmony, and social cooperation, here’s a lovely video of Stile Antico singing Palestrina’s Assumpta est Maria: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjsitAd5Tlc] And, since we attended the Chicago Symphony’s Welcome Yule concert last night and it was lovely, here’s a snippet of Handel’s Messiah, from the choir of …

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Breaking News: State Regulatory Procedures Do Not Favor Consumers

Lynne Kiesling As is the vernacular these days, your response to the title of this post is probably “I know, right?” Or, if you prefer sarcasm, you may say “no, really?” This is the conclusion of an all-too-rare piece of investigative journalism from Dan Garino at the Columbus Dispatch: Ohio’s unique system for setting electricity …

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Does a Public Good Argument Justify Subsidizing Private Energy Production?

Michael Giberson Yesterday I disputed the analysis by which the Breakthough Institute wanted to claim credit on behalf of the federal government for the shale gas boom; today I dispute their claimed broader implications for federal energy R&D policy. Late in their op-ed, the Breakthrough folks shift emphasis from a narrow drilling technology story to …

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Did the Federal Government Invent the Shale Gas Boom?

Michael Giberson In the Washington Post the folks at the Breakthrough Institute try to learn us some history about the shale gas boom. Maybe you think the shale gas boom was some big surprise suddenly made real after the decades-long work of a hard-headed oil and gas guy – George Mitchell – willing to spend …

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