Lynne Kiesling If you are interested in following the Waxman-Markey energy-climate bill as it wends its way through Congress, John at Environmental Economics alerts us to the EPA’s analysis of the bill’s cost. The EPA estimates that it will cost less than $150/year, contrary to other, higher estimates. I’m not convinced by the EPA estimates, …
Lynne Kiesling When we think of concepts like peer-to-peer networks and disintermediation, we usually think of industries that are very Internet-centric. But these concepts can, should, and will apply in electric power networks too: smart grid technology enables peer-to-peer power. The study referenced in that BBC article analyzes the potential for microgrids, and argues that …
Michael Giberson “The level of experimentation is abysmal,” says Prof List. “These firms do not take full advantage of feedback opportunities they’re presented with. After seeing example after example, we sat down and said, ‘We have to try to do something to stop this.’ One change we could make is to teach 75 to 100 …
Michael Giberson Chris Davis, at PowrTalk, asks, “What if power companies became more like banks?” Maybe the idea seems a little scary, especially with the way some banks have performed lately, but if it scares you then you are missing the point. Here is more: When electricity comes from distributed renewables, there is less for …
Lynne Kiesling This earth2tech post comments on a presentation from Rich Sedano at the Ceres conference this week in San Francisco. Rich has been working on electricity regulatory issues, demand response, and institutional design for a long time, and his insights as reported here are very important and frequently overlooked: The way Sedano sees it, …
Regulated Utilities, Wall Street, and Smart Grid Investment Read More »
Michael Giberson Occasionally we hear from readers curious about the blog name, “knowledge problem.” Edmund Phelps explains the knowledge problem in an excellent essay that appeared in the Financial Times. (Registration may be required for FT.com; the essay is also posted in full at the FT‘s Capitalism blog.) Joseph Schumpeter’s early theory proposed that a …
Lynne Kiesling Perhaps the only thing surprising about the research described in this Washington Post article is how demonstrable and quantifiable the effects are: In a remarkable illustration of the power of lobbying in Washington, a study released last week found that a single tax break in 2004 earned companies $220 for every dollar they …
Lynne Kiesling One of the recurring themes here at KP is that smart grid technology makes it possible to harness distributed intelligence in the electric power network, and when you couple that network of distributed intelligence with a decentralized flow of information (such as price signals and market processes), you can get reliability through decentralized …
Lynne Kiesling If you are interested in the ongoing scientific, economic, and political sturm und drang around ethanol, fossil fuels, and food, this WSJ Environmental Capital post alerts us to a new study from the Congressional Budget Office claiming that ethanol production was only responsible for 10-15% of the increase in food prices in 2007-2008. …
Lynne Kiesling Friday’s Wall Street Journal editorial on cap and trade and the Waxman-Markey bill has prompted me to come out of the closet and say something publicly that I’ve been thinking for a couple of months: although I think that the most effective and economically efficient carbon policy is one that directly reflects the …
Can Congress Be Trusted to Design Effective Carbon Policy? I Doubt It Read More »
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