Am running around today like the proverbial headless chicken … so must rely on tempting tidbits, such as this article from Live Power News entitled “Don’t Build Transmission Lines Near My Home Use Energy Efficient Technologies Instead.” The author, Albert Thumann, thinks that energy efficiency adoption is a marketing problem. I disagree; I think it’s …
Vernon Smith and I have a commentary in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Entitled “Socket to Arnold”, our point is that the existing system of average pricing is unfair to off-peak users. Off-peak users subsidize peak energy use, and that’s both inefficient and unfair: But current policy unfairly forces consumers to pay rates based …
Ken Silverstein’s Utilipoint Issue Alert today discusses the proposed Exelon acquisition of Illinois Power in the context of the potential repeal of PUCHA, the Public Utility Company Holding Act of 1935. It’s a very interesting analysis. Arguments for the repeal of PUHCA may have gained footing since the August blackout, as one of the primary …
Exelon, which owns the northern Illinois utility Commonwealth Edison, has announced its acquisition of Illinois Power, a downstate utility that is currently owned by Dynegy. There are lots of interesting potential aspects of this acquisition. First is Exelon’s pressure on the Illinois Commerce Commission to follow an accelerated process of approving the rate increase that …
This AP article describes how the anticipation of higher natural gas and heating oil prices this winter has induced more customers than usual to opt for fixed-bill spreading of their winter fuel costs across a year’s bills. Someone should do a study of these moves and tie it to estimates of customer price elasticity of …
PJM reports new transmission construction on the Delmarva Peninsula. Delmarva is a notorious load pocket in Maryland/Virginia on the eastern shore, and has been struggling with increased demands for power and NIMBY concerns about building new generation and transmission. This report suggests that some compromise has been achieved, because there have been both generation and …
Transmission Construction In The Delmarva Peninsula Read More »
Kudos to Craig Newmark for picking up on a story that I think is really, really important: running fiber optic cable through natural gas pipelines. The cable can be inserted into a tube placed inside existing underground gas lines serving homes and businesses by cutting “small incisions in the streets,” Peevey said. Think about it: …
Multiple Use Network Infrastructure And Rights Of Way Read More »
I am thrilled, absolutely thrilled, to find out from Tyler Cowen this morning that Al Lowi’s and Clyde Wayne Crews’s chapter on electricity is available online (and many thanks to Dan Klein for doing so). I recommend it to you all. This chapter is from Dan Klein’s and Fred Foldvary’s book, The Half-Life of Policy …
On Wednesday Tyler Cowen raised the following points about Callum McCarthy’s Financial Times editorial on the London blackout: OK, the author is Callum McCarthy, chief energy regulator in the UK, and he presumably has a vested interest in defending the status quo. And I don’t understand his convoluted take on overcapacity and price history, as …
At the Volokh Conspiracy, Juan non-Volokh has a good set of posts on the economic and political dynamics underlying criticisms of the recent New Source Review changes, which I discussed in this post.
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