This outstanding and thorough Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) provides a great overview of the issues involved in hydrogen vehicle research and commercialization. The article focuses particularly on the chicken-and-egg problem of the simultaneous evolution of a technology (the engine) and a complementary technology (the fueling infrastructure): Larry Burns, GM’s top technology guru, says …
This article by Jacob Sullum in Reason Online today is an absolute must-read. Notwithstanding the mounting evidence that moderate alcohol consumption is good for your health, federal regulations mandate that winemakers cannot claim health benefits on their labels. An excerpt: That is the upshot of regulations published this month by the Treasury Department’s Alcohol and …
In this commentary on NPR’s Morning Edition on Friday, Russell Roberts explains how oil companies cannot “gouge” us with high gas prices. You can also read a transcript of the commentary. Here’s the intro, to entice you to read the whole thing: Whenever gas prices go up, we hear about the power of oil companies …
This Christian Science Monitor article and this Economist article provide some insightful analysis on the economic costs of high oil prices. Regular readers of this page will already know much of what’s contained in these articles — the unfortunate concatenation of Venezuelan unrest, possible war in Iraq, and an unusually cold winter in the US …
And here’s a cool article from last week on electricity customers in Washington state choosing green power and being willing to pay more (typically $5 more/month) for it. Funny how giving consumers choices creates value for both producers and consumers … yes! The world is positive sum! And companies can make money by offering services …
Check out this AP story from Saturday on consumer demand for hybrid vehicles. The article makes what I think is the correct point — when consumers choose a vehicle, they are simultaneously satisfying a large array of preferences and characteristics, not just fuel economy or reducing our dependence on foreign oil. So what will be …
Yesterday the state of California filed 3,000 pages with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to substantiate their claims for larger refunds from energy companies that provided power in the state during the electricity crisis in 2000-2001. The documents have been filed to support a claim for $7.5 billion in refunds, much more than the $1.8 …
Megan McArdle has a good post on CAFE standards and their perverse incentives. See also Virginia Postrel’s NYT column on CAFE standards that I referred to earlier.
One of the main culprits in gasoline consumption and mobile-source emissions in urban areas is traffic congestion. A new Reason study provides practical suggestions for turning HOV lanes into toll lanes. From the press release: An accident or traffic jam is going to cause you to miss your flight or your child?s soccer game; Would …
For those of you who are interested in continuing to “follow the money trail” with Iraq, this Heritage Foundation research brief concisely summarizes the known economic relations.
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