Michael Giberson Just because someone is professionally qualified to discuss a tree, a rock, or a cloud does not make them expert on what makes good public policy toward trees, rocks, or clouds. Need an example? Here is a clip from an interview with climate scientist Ken Caldeira on Yale Environment 360. Caldeira is currently …
A Tree, a Rock, a Cloud, and Policy Toward Devices That Emit Carbon Dioxide Read More »
Michael Giberson More thoughts on economic issues related to the Tres Amigas project, an ambitious proposal to connect the Western, Eastern, and Texas electric grids via a three-way high tech transmission link located in eastern New Mexico. (Earlier: Tres Amigas intro and Economics for …). Europeans have had several years of experience connecting separate national …
Market Designs for Tres Amigas: How About Trilateral Market Coupling? Read More »
Michael Giberson NewsWatch:Energy puts together a pretty good list of energy links, today noting the National Research Council’s new “Hidden costs of energy: Unpriced consequences of energy production and use.” (Surprise: coal looks bad. But note that much of the harm arises from a small number of coal-fueled generators. The rest of the coal-burners are …
External Costs of Energy Production, Auditing the Energy Star Program, and More Read More »
Michael Giberson The sequel to the surprise-hit Freakonomics — I think the sequel is called Freako II: The Empire Strikes Back or something like that — is causing waves due to commentary on global warming in Chapter 5. I haven’t seen the book or read the leaked chapter 5, which is circulating online. I’m not …
Michael Giberson Tres Amigas is a proposed project to link the Eastern Interconnection, Western Interconnection, and the Texas Interconnection (ERCOT) by means of a high-tech three-way superconducting AC-DC-AC connection. You might wonder what economics has to say about such an unprecedented and innovative proposal. Consider this summary from Ralph Turvey, “Interconnector Economics,” Energy Policy, 34 …
Michael Giberson Cale Davis, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Applied Economics at Montana State University, produced a thesis examining why some states do and others don’t have anti-price gouging laws. The abstract of “An Analysis of the Enactment of Anti-Price Gouging Laws“: Anti-price gouging (APG) laws …
Why Have 31 States Passed Anti-price Gouging Laws (and 19 Not)? Read More »
Michael Giberson ExxonMobil, among the companies under investigation by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumers Services for price gouging following Hurricane Ike, has asked the state agency to explain just what price gouging is according to Florida law. [ExxonMobil] officials claim the state’s rules for price gouging are too broad. They have written to …
Florida Price Gouging Laws: Too Vague or Just Flexible? Read More »
Michael Giberson In a previous post I was complaining that the entrenched regulated utility industry makes the electric power business resistant to entrepreneurial efforts to shake things up, even when those entrepreneurs want to do things that regulators, utilities, and consumers say they want. (Like environmentally-friendly cogeneration projects, as The New Republic story mentioned.) A …
An Illustration of the Problem Discussed in an Earlier Post Read More »
Michael Giberson The New Republic has an excellent article by Bradford Plumer about the current state of the electric power industry and the prospects of the industry achieving what diverse interests expect of it. (Yes, in TNR, who’d a thunk it?) The article highlights the political economy of regulated electric utilities and their immense lobbying …
Private Wires and the Electric Power Industry You Want Read More »
Michael Giberson A high-profile, high-technology power project is making waves well beyond the small town of Clovis, New Mexico, where it has secured land for development. I’ve been telling my students and anyone else I can induce to listen to me for a few minutes (i.e., mostly just my students) that my new hometown of …
Tres Amigas Project Proposes to Connect Eastern, Western, and Texas Power Grids Read More »
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