Lynne Kiesling To answer my own question: dunno. But the technology has a lot of promise. The Wikipedia entry on plug-in hybrid vehicles” is a thorough and well-cited background on the technology and its potential. In particular, of course, I am interested in the vehicle’s intersection with the electric power network: PHEVs and fully electric …
Lynne Kiesling Thanks to Jesse Walker at Reason for the link to the Baltimore Sun’s Bay & Environment Blog. If, like me, you are interested in environmental issues pertaining to water use, this site looks like it will be quite useful. The current top post by Rona Kobell prompts me to think about something that …
Michael Giberson It seems I may have left off a critical point in my comment on regulation and the apparent rebirth of nuclear power. Following the insightful commentary in Loren Steffy’s column in the Houston Chronicle, I highlighted that in many cases stockholders would assume the risks of cost overruns or poor performance, rather than …
Lynne Kiesling As has been pointed out here, at Environmental Economics, and elsewhere, the ethanol subsidies included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 have wrought a host of unintended consequences: the shift in demand increased corn prices, inducing farmers to substitute out of growing soybeans and into growing corn. This production substitution was not …
Proprietary, Sweeter Tomates: Another Unintended Consequence of Ethanol Subsidies Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Today sees a good article from the aforementioned Jonathan Adler on regulatory barriers to innovation and implementation of renewable energy. His conclusion: To promote alternative energy development, there’s no need for more handouts. Instead the government should get out of the way. If the goal is to increase actual alternative energy production, and …
Adler On Regulatory Barriers To Renewable Energy Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Here’s a new example of dynamic, creative capitalism: shifts in relative prices of urban transportation (i.e., high gasoline prices) have increased the number of urban residents who use bicycles for transportation instead of/in addition to sport and fitness. This shift in relative prices and previously-untapped demand has led to a new product market: …
Lynne Kiesling Ron Bailey has a thorough and thoughtful article about climate change at Reason that is well worth a read. Part of the article focuses on the crucial role that technological change plays in affecting future resource use and climate conditions, and points out that such technological change is the main way that progress …
Michael Giberson John Podesta, currently president of the Center for American Progress, recently spoke to the National Association of State Treasurers: Continued leadership from state treasurers on global warming will be essential to ensure that we address the scale and urgency of climate risk—and capture the vast economic possibilities that lie ahead as the world …
Lynne Kiesling Today’s New York Times has a column by Thomas Friedman, “Go Green And Save Money” (TimesSelect $$), on the importance of energy efficiency for both reducing costs and reducing overall resource use. In it Friedman draws attention to the crucial fact that both electricity use and prices are determined by the interaction of …
Thomas Friedman on Energy Efficiency in the New York Times Today Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Last week the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran an article discussing how our nearly century-old, analog wires network is not up to the challenge of being a modern, distributed system that includes renewable energy: The nation’s electric power transmission system, aka the grid, could be imagined as an overworked tangle of fraying household wires repeatedly …
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