Author name: Michael Giberson

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

7 Comments / Electricity, Technology / By

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?

5 Comments / Economics, Environmental policy, Law / By

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

Environmental policy, Politics, Regulation / By

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

Economic history, Economics / By

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

1 Comment / Economics, Law, Technology / By

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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Meanwhile, More “Power Market and the State” Battles in New Jersey and Maryland

1 Comment / Electricity, Energy markets, Politics, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson And if Andrew Kleit thinks that the Pennsylvania state government is toying with a bad idea (see previous post), look what is going on next door in New Jersey and Maryland. In New Jersey: “Utilities challenge New Jersey law while preparing to reap its benefits.” In January the Governor signed a law which …

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Would a ‘pennsylvania Power Authority’ Be Good for Pennsylvanians?

1 Comment / Electricity, Energy markets, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson Also in the Spring 2011 issue of Regulation magazine is Andrew Kleit’s article on a proposed Pennsylvania Power Authority. In the course of explaining why such a state power agency would be a bad idea, Kleit explains a lot about how the wholesale power market works in Pennsylvania (and elsewhere). Noteworthy is Kleit’s …

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“The Problem with Price Gouging Laws”

6 Comments / Economics, Law, Liberty, Politics / By

Michael Giberson The Spring 2011 issue of Regulation magazine carries my article, “The Problem with Price Gouging Laws.” One bit: Economists and policy analysts opposed to price gouging laws have relied on the simple logic of price controls: if you cap price increases during an emergency, you discourage conservation of needed goods at exactly the time they are in …

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Update on “Will Faking a Consumer Cartel Help Make Power Markets More Efficient?”

Economics, Electricity, Energy markets, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson Last September I asked, “Will faking a consumer cartel help make power markets more efficient?“, “Does FERC really want to go down this path?” and “Do they really think that faking a consumer cartel will help make wholesale power markets work more efficiently?” The answer to the first question is “no, it won’t make markets …

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