Lynne Kiesling On Wednesday the U.S. House passed a gasoline price gouging bill. The bill’s chief sponsor, Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, said he had no doubt the FTC would be able to determine price gouging once the agency had a law to uphold. The measure would establish the first federal law against energy …
Lynne Kiesling You driving anywhere this weekend? I’m not. Other than a trip to the grocery store, I hope not to get in the car at all. In part that’s the high gas prices talking, but in part it’s a rebound from the fact that I spent the last three days at a conference out …
Memorial Day Driving, Gas Prices, and Retail Sales Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Glen Whitman has a nice analysis of gasoline expenditure as a share of household income. Note that he shows, by income quintile, how the cost of traveling 25,000 miles in a year fell from 1981 to 2000, and that although it rose through 2005 and fell back a bit in 2006, it is …
Gas Prices: Mobility Cost As Percent of Household Budget Has Fallen Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Harvard economist Ed Glaeser has a nice column in today’s Boston Globe in which he proposes a “road map for environmentalism” (HT to Greg Mankiw). I think it’s a thoughtful and substantially correct analysis and pragmatic set of proposals; in particular, his emphasis on the importance of rethinking current policies and the extent …
Michael Giberson The folks that do technology site CNET have launched an online business magazine at www.BNET.com. Among the items of interest (at least to me) now on BNET: A discussion with the CEO of Erickson Retirement Communities which covers, among other things, practical applications of prediction market Inkling. A podcast that includes New Yorker …
Lynne Kiesling Three cheers for Tim Haab for saying what I’m often too lazy or too cowardly to say: So let’s take a look at the STUPID price gouging bill… So we’ve now proven that Democrats are idiots. We’re halfway there. … Republicans are idiots. Since independents don’t matter, I conclude my proof. All politicians …
Tim Haab on the Politics of Gas Prices: Get Over It Read More »
Lynne Kiesling As economic growth continues to drive up demand for petroleum-based energy, foreign supplies are fraught with geopolitical costs, and concerns about the environmental effects of fuel use increase, energy prices rise and we naturally seek out alternatives to the oil we’ve become accustomed to using over the past century. One potentially attractive option …
Lynne Kiesling How cool is this? Purdue engineering researchers have made major progress on a new internal combustion engine design, using variable valve actuation. One remarkable innovation in this research is removing the connection between the crankshaft and the camshaft, which is what drives the pistons up and down. This design has been at the …
Michael Giberson How far would you go to gain another $1 a gallon on fuel? As The Independent reports, some biofuel traders in Europe, in a little trick called “splash and dash”, are shipping biodiesel to the U.S. to be mixed with a little gas to qualify for a $1/gallon subsidy, then shipping it back …
Michael Giberson …at least that would be a sensible response for senators concerned about automobile fuel economy and increasing consumption of fossil fuels. While news reports have suggested that higher prices haven’t really backed down consumption much, we all know what would happen if prices were a dollar per gallon lower. But no, market-based solutions …
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