Author name: Michael Giberson

Solar Power: Policies Should Encourage Thoughtful Development

10 Comments / Electricity, Environmental policy / By

Michael Giberson Tom Konrad, writing at Alternative Energy Stocks, notes that “current incentives for Solar photovoltaics are good for encouraging more solar, but they are less effective at encouraging better solar.” (Emphasis added.) His quick review of policy options touches on renewable energy credits, feed-in tariffs, net metering, time-of-use rates, carbon pricing and other tools. …

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Is the Zone Pricing Ban Raising Average Gasoline Prices in New York?

Economics, Energy markets / By

Michael Giberson In my just published post on zone pricing, I noted a newspaper story from New York which suggests that the recently enacted ban on zone prices was equalizing gasoline prices, at least around Rochester. To quote myself: Meanwhile, in neighboring New York, a newspaper story from suburban Rochester suggests that the state’s new …

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Legislators from Wealthy Fairfield County, Connecticut Hope a Zone Pricing Ban Will Save Constituents Money

1 Comment / Economics, Energy markets / By

Michael Giberson From the website of Livvy Floren, Greenwich state representative and Assistant Republican Leader in the Connecticut House of Representatives, “Greenwich Delegation Calls for Ban on Zone Pricing of Gas“: HARTFORD- Greenwich State Reps. Livvy Floren (R-149), Lile Gibbons (R-150) and Fred Camillo (R-151) are dismayed the state legislature refuses to address the issue …

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Auctions As Tools to Limit Government Discretion

1 Comment / Economics, Politics / By

Michael Giberson Auctions, especially auctions of government property, are not a tool of the rich…  As principles of market design become more thoroughly articulated and widely understood, the sphere of governmental discretion will shrink. More and more, politicians will be forced to play by the rules. That’s David Warsh writing on the relationship between the …

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Price Gouging Policy As Rendered in Everyday Politics

Economics, Energy markets, Politics / By

Michael Giberson Way to go, Sen. Goss. Now grandma in Wilmington is gonna go three days without a flashlight ‘cuz you don’t understand basic economics. That is the conclusion of a post on Carolina Politics Online about a proposal by North Carolina state senator Steve Goss to not limit the state’s price gouging law to …

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Lng Possibilities Keeping Natural Gas Prices Down in U.S.

Energy markets / By

Michael Giberson “Our feeling is that natural gas prices have some challenges because of the LNG that may be coming this way due to our storage capability in the United States and the reduced industrial demand overseas,” Hackett said… Gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange have dropped about 30 percent this year, compared …

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Arizona Commissioners’ Views on a Non-jurisdictional Utility’s Cost-Cutting Plan

Electricity, Politics, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson The Salt River Project is, among other things, a fairly substantial electric utility serving customers in the state of Arizona. As it is a state-chartered entity, not an investor-owned utility, it is not subject to regulation by the Arizona Corporation Commission. But that didn’t stop a couple of Arizona state commissioners from opining …

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Flywheel Technology Now Ready for Takeoff? Nyiso Tariff Changes Accomodate Energy Storage Technology

Electricity, Energy markets / By

Michael Giberson The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved NYISO tariff changes intended to accommodate participation of flywheel and similar energy storage devices in markets to supply frequency regulation services.  Flywheel developer Beacon Power applauded the change. The FERC order, linked above, describes a number of changes to the NYISO tariff and operating procedures needed …

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Consequences of Dynamic Transmission Line Rating for Renewable Power

Electricity / By

Michael Giberson I think the implication of this article are good for wind power, but not as good for solar power. Some of the discussion borders on being over my head, but the main point is that many transmission line capability ratings are static while the actual transmission line capability is dynamic. Dynamic line ratings …

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Origins of State Electric Utility Regulation: Was It Protection of Quasi-rents Not Creation of Monopoly Rents?

Economic history, Economics, Electricity, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson There is by now a fairly established body of economic history work that challenges what might be called the mainstream view of the origins of state regulation of electric utilities and offers as an alternative a nakedly public choice view that state regulation was all about creation of monopoly rents. The mainstream view …

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