Lynne Kiesling Pale Rider is one of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies. One of its central themes revolves around classic property rights concepts in a community of miners that includes a number of small pan miners and a family that has built a larger, hydraulic mining operation that essentially uses pressurized water to blast rock …
Michael Giberson Yesterday I disputed the analysis by which the Breakthough Institute wanted to claim credit on behalf of the federal government for the shale gas boom; today I dispute their claimed broader implications for federal energy R&D policy. Late in their op-ed, the Breakthrough folks shift emphasis from a narrow drilling technology story to …
Does a Public Good Argument Justify Subsidizing Private Energy Production? Read More »
Michael Giberson Russel Smith thinks we should use government power to limit natural gas production in order to boost gas prices. Why? Because he is the executive director of the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association and cheap and plentiful gas is cutting into the business opportunities of renewable energy companies. “The price is so low, there’s so much …
Michael Giberson The Economist is hosting an online debate on the motion, “This house believes that subsidising renewable energy is a good way to wean the world off fossil fuels.” Matthew Fripp of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University has presented the affirmative case for the motion, Robert Bradley, Jr., of the Institute for …
Is Subsidising Renewable Energy is a Good Way to Wean the World off Fossil Fuels? Read More »
Michael Giberson The Gas Exporting Countries Forum is meeting in Qatar. From a few news stories I gather they want to boost output and obtain higher prices, and they don’t want to issue quotas or be a cartel. My thought is that, unless they’ve discovered an end-run around basic economic principles, they will be unsuccessful in …
Gas Exporting Countries Forum Wants Higher Output and Higher Prices Read More »
Michael Giberson A few days ago, Geoffrey Styles was assessing the potential role of energy issues in the 2012 U.S. presidential election: Even though $4 gasoline was still fresh in the minds of voters, energy played only a minor role in the outcome of the 2008 election, overshadowed by two wars and a crippling financial crisis. Will …
Michael Giberson Paul Krugman commented on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and on solar energy the other day. His main thrust is the good news he finds on solar energy, but he detours into a few comments on fracking to generate a charge of political hypocrisy. Fracking is, he says, “a technology that imposes large costs …
Paul Krugman Comments on Hydraulic Fracturing and Solar Power Read More »
Michael Giberson Paul M. Barrett, for Bloomberg, has written up a pretty good introduction to natural gas from shale. The article delves a bit into the history and geology of the subject, but focuses more on the business efforts that turned a modestly interesting rock into a significant economic resource and the environmental politics that …
Michael Giberson If you believed what politicians say about green energy and jobs, you probably think they fit together like peanut butter and jelly squished between layers of bread. Has there been a renewable power subsidy announcement or ribbon-cutting ceremony where the word “jobs” was not featured in the first two or three sentences uttered …
Wherein the Jobs Jobs Jobs Rhetoric Hampers Solar Power Development Read More »
Michael Giberson Brief notes about other energy stories in the news. Flywheel energy storage company Beacon Power has filed for bankruptcy. News stories have highlighted the point that Beacon was a recipient of federal energy technology loan guarantees, which will give an additional boost to Solyndra critics, but I predict the apparent lack of high-level …
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