Michael Giberson The Des Moines Register has one version of the story – the agribusiness industry decided it could do without the subsidy since the renewable fuels mandate seemed securely in place: So established is corn-fed ethanol that the industry allowed the expiration of the 45 cents-per-gallon tax credit for ethanol production, as well as the …
Michael Giberson It sounds kind of funny to say the New York Attorney General wants to prohibit business-related reasoning in gasoline wholesaling. After all, gasoline wholesaling is a business activity and generally business-related reasoning would be entirely appropriate. It sounds like asking a court not to act on law-related reasoning or asking a politician not to …
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 …
Does a Public Good Argument Justify Subsidizing Private Energy Production? Read More »
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 …
Did the Federal Government Invent the Shale Gas Boom? Read More »
Michael Giberson The KP Texas office is alive and functional, I am relieved to discover, just recently emerged from the end of semester rush and not yet enveloped in the holiday rush. So I’ll try to rediscover my internet legs, re-raise the Jolly Blogger flag, and set sail in search of curious, erroneous, surprising or …
Michael Giberson Russel Smith thinks we should use government power to limit natural gas production in order to boost gas prices. Why? Because he is the executive director of the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association and cheap and plentiful gas is cutting into the business opportunities of renewable energy companies. “The price is so low, there’s so much …
Michael Giberson The Economist is hosting an online debate on the motion, “This house believes that subsidising renewable energy is a good way to wean the world off fossil fuels.” Matthew Fripp of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University has presented the affirmative case for the motion, Robert Bradley, Jr., of the Institute for …
Is Subsidising Renewable Energy is a Good Way to Wean the World off Fossil Fuels? Read More »
Michael Giberson The Gas Exporting Countries Forum is meeting in Qatar. From a few news stories I gather they want to boost output and obtain higher prices, and they don’t want to issue quotas or be a cartel. My thought is that, unless they’ve discovered an end-run around basic economic principles, they will be unsuccessful in …
Gas Exporting Countries Forum Wants Higher Output and Higher Prices Read More »
Michael Giberson Discovering that renewable power mandates can be expensive, California-style: “California Approves Solar Contract Despite High Cost“: Ultimately, the commissioners voted for Abengoa’s contract mainly because Abengoa already has spent five years and $70 million to develop Mojave Solar and has gotten all the permits and financing to start construction. They noted that getting …
Michael Giberson One of the classics of resource economics is Harold Hotelling’s “The economics of exhaustible resources,” Journal of Political Economy (1931). The article gave us what is now called “Hotelling’s rule,” which links resource prices and extraction rates for resources in finite supply. The article was simple, logical, and pathbreaking. It also, by the …
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