September 2012

Antitrust and Google Search Bias

Lynne Kiesling For the past year and a half the Federal Trade Commission has been investigating the potential anti-competitive effects of Google’s search-based business model. The European Union has also been pursuing antitrust complaints against Google. The main accusation is Google search bias — Google’s algorithm prioritizes links both to paid advertisers (which are shaded …

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A Proposal for Fisk Power Plant: Museum of History and Industry

Lynne Kiesling After a long and contentious series of battles over the past three decades, two of the original coal-fired steam turbine power plants in Chicago powered down at the end of August. The Fisk plant and the Crawford plant were the last two coal-fired power plants in operation within a major U.S. city, and …

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Any Reason to Be Worried About Wind Power Industry Layoffs?

Michael Giberson In an article titled “4 Reasons All Americans Should Be Worried About Wind Layoffs,” you’d think there would be at least one reason that people should be worried about wind industry layoffs. Sadly, no. Instead the author tells the reader: (1) wind power installations are largely in GOP-held congressional districts, (2) the U.S. …

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‘Demand Response’ in Electricity: Economists Vs. FERC on (Over)Pricing

Michael Giberson As noted here at KP in August, a group of electric power economists (including me) filed an amicus brief on FERC’s demand response pricing rule. At the Master Resource blog, Travis Fisher examines the issue with some detail. Here is a bit: In Order No. 745, FERC reasoned that, “when a demand response …

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Can Airports Be Green? With a Little Greenwashing They Can!

Michael Giberson Midwest Energy News: “Can airports be green? With solar farm, Chicago argues they can.” Aviation is a carbon intensive industry, with air travel and transport contributing two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But airports around the world are making significant efforts to reduce their carbon …

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Economic Freedom of the World: We’re #18!

Lynne Kiesling This year’s Economic Freedom of the World report is released today, and the US has dropped to #18, its lowest ranking ever. From the press release: The United States, long considered a champion of economic freedom among large industrial nations, dropped to its lowest position ever in to the Fraser Institute’s annual Economic …

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