Michael Giberson Yesterday I commented on Michael Sandel’s book, Justice, and on his discussion of price gouging. I hoped that Sandel would go deeper into his ideas about justice and price gouging, but the book’s index suggests that the introductory chapter is all he has to offer specifically on price gouging. In re-reading parts of …
More on Michael Sandel, Justice and Price Gouging Read More »
Michael Giberson From WSJ Environmental Capital: When it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions, Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees Americans as unruly teenagers and the Administration as the parent that will have to teach them a few lessons. Speaking on the sidelines of a smart grid conference in Washington, Dr. Chu said he didn’t think average folks …
Energy Secretary Steven Chu: Not Exactly Making Friends and Influencing People Read More »
Michael Giberson From the LA Times car culture blog Up to Speed: A campaign backed by automakers and some lawmakers to make electric or hybrid cars noisier in a bid to increase safety for pedestrians and cyclists has taken a strange, “Blade Runner”-type twist. Nissan sound engineers have announced that the Leaf electric car set …
Life Imitates Art: Nissan to Give Electric Car a “Beautiful and Futuristic” Noise Read More »
Michael Giberson Michael Sandel appeared on the Today show last week promoting his new book, Justice: what is the right thing to do? The book and a related public television series this fall are based on Sandel’s course on justice taught at Harvard. (The television series episodes are online at the link just cited.) The …
Michael Giberson Under the headline “Nobel Prize winner: Don’t rely on wind technology” comes this explanation of the superiority of solar power over wind power: “It is only windy enough 40 to 45 percent of the time. Often, you will not be able to satisfy European energy needs using wind. In the desert, the sun …
Michael Giberson From Walmart’s contribution to a complaint against PJM filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday: Demand response initiatives can originate with a utility program, an ISO or RTO program, or by the customer for different reasons. Walmart has been one of the pioneers of demand response in addition to being a …
Walmart Says Iso Power Markets Offer Best Programs for Supporting Demand Response Read More »
Michael Giberson At Overcoming Bias, Robin Hanson points out that the human instinct for cooperation has good and bad consequences. A handful of recent articles in reaction to Frans de Waal’s new book, The Age of Empathy, and other writing on cooperation have treated it as a good thing, as a helpful counterweight to human …
Price Gouging and the “Dark Side of Cooperation” Read More »
Michael Giberson A Reuters story on an ethanol techology advancement is titled, “UK technology could turn U.S. ethanol industry green.” The essence of the process is a composting bacteria that can take distillers’ grain, a by-product of ethanol production, and extract more ethanol from it. Because the process works while the distillers’ grain is still …
Will Ethanol Become an Environmentally-friendly Fuel Some Day? Read More »
Michael Giberson Denmark has a lot of wind power capacity. On that point, pretty much all observers agree. Beyond that point, opinions diverge. The Institute for Energy Research, possibly in response to President Obama’s references to Denmark as a renewable energy model, has commissioned a report from Danish think tank CEPOS on the nature of …
Danish Wind Power Report by LER, and Views from the NRDC Read More »
Michael Giberson From Columbia, South Carolina’s The State newspaper, more evidence of the predictable effects of anti-price gouging laws: A day after drivers began a panic-buying run on gas, S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster invoked the state’s price-gouging law with fines up to $1,000 per offense and up to 30 days in jail. Hotlines were …
Retail Gasoline Stations Shutting Down to Avoid Price Gouging Complaints Read More »
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