Author name: Michael Giberson

Promoting Energy Conservation Through Thermal Imaging

Uncategorized / By

When I posted the suggestion that adding thermal imaging capability to the cameras on ordinary smart phones would boost energy efficiency, I did not know there was published research offering some support for claim. As it turns out…. Julie Goodhew, Sabine Pahl, Tim Auburn, and Steve Goodhew, “Making Heat Visible: Promoting Energy Conservation Behaviors Through Thermal Imaging” Environment & …

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The Mystery of Fracking Revealed by Intrepid Washington Post Reporter

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From the Washington Post: “This mystery was solved: Scientists say chemicals from fracking wastewater can taint fresh water nearby.”* The article itself mentions one study done by the USGS looking upstream and downstream from a single wastewater storage site in near Lochgelly, WV. But a study by the U.S. Geological Survey appears to have answered …

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Does Bad Regulatory Policy Sow the Seeds of Better Regulatory Policy?

1 Comment / Electricity, Environmental policy, Regulation, Uncategorized / By

Severin Borenstein asks whether growth of distributed energy is mostly an uneconomic response to regulatory dysfunction, and raises the question of whether uneconomic responses might lead to regulatory improvements. He doesn’t quite frame the issues quite like that, his post is somewhat exploratory in form, but I think this is the question he is aiming at. …

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Widespread Access to Thermal Imagery Will Boost Home Energy Efficiency

2 Comments / Regulation, Technology / By

When the cameras built in to everyday phones have smart thermal imaging capability, then – finally – the dreams of energy efficiency experts will come true. Consumers will have easy access to pictures showing hot spots and cold spots around windows and doors and on walls and ceilings. People will spend more to replace windows and …

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The Federal Government Wants to Help Trucking Companies Save Money

Environmental policy, Regulation, Transportation / By

The EPA and the U.S. Department of Transportation think trucking companies in the United States are not smart enough to understand that fuel expenses are worth managing carefully. Despite industry analysis identifying fuel costs ranging from 30 to 40 percent of variable costs per mile, so it is no secret in the trucking business, the federal …

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Texas Terminates Agreement with Oil Industry-backed Lizard Conservation Group

1 Comment / Environmental policy, Regulation / By

A few years ago the state of Texas helped fight calls to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as endangered by supporting an oil industry-backed foundation to oversee lizard habitat and promote habitat conservation efforts. Conservation groups were loudly skeptical of the Texas Habitat Conservation Foundation (THCF) due to its close ties to the oil industry. …

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Cooperation Between Bird-watchers and Hot-rodders

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Dwight Lee writes of cooperation between antagonists, fostered by private ownership: [M]ost members of the Audubon Society surely see the large sport utility vehicles and high-powered cars encouraged by abundant petroleum supplies as environmentally harmful. That perception, along with the environmental risks associated with oil recovery, helps explain why the Audubon Society vehemently opposes drilling …

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Should We Make It Politically Profitable for Policymakers to Do the Right Thing

Politics / By

Should we make it politically profitable for policymakers to do the right thing, or should we make it less profitable for policymakers to do anything? Abigail Hall, writing a pair of posts for the Independent Institute blog The Beacon, urges liberty-minded people not to get too excited about electing the “right people.” (First post, second) …

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Cass Sunstein on Regulatory Analysis and the Knowledge Problem

3 Comments / Economics, Regulation / By

Cass Sunstein begins: With respect to the past and future of regulation, there are two truly indispensable ideas. Unfortunately, they are in serious tension with one another. Potential solutions lie in three reforms, all connected with democracy itself – but perhaps not quite in the way that most people think. The first indispensable idea is …

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Will Raising the Minimum Bid in Federal Oil and Gas Lease Auctions Boost Auction Revenue?

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The short answer to the title question is probably not. In the Department of the Interior’s rulemaking docket concerning the financial terms governing oil and gas leasing on federal lands, a handful of comments endorsed the idea of raising the minimum bid in lease auctions as a way to increase federal revenues. But, as explained …

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