Lynne Kiesling Back in July and also a couple of other times over the past two years, Mike has written here about the Jevons effect — when an increase in energy efficiency reduces the per-unit cost to the consumer of doing the energy-consuming action, moving her down along her energy demand curve and increasing her …
More on Rebound, Backlash, and the Jevons Effect Read More »
Michael Giberson At the Freakonomics blog, a Q&A with Peter Leeson about his book The Invisible Hook. Here is the first exchange: Q.The Invisible Hook is more than just a clever title. How is it different from Adam Smith‘s invisible hand? A. In Adam Smith, the idea is that each individual pursuing his own self-interest is led, …
An Invisible Hook Q&a, and Other Items of Interest Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Ted Gayer of the Brookings Institution and Kip Viscusi of Vanderbilt University have a new Mercatus working paper that is a careful and thoughtful critique of the rationale, the methodology, and the outcomes of federal energy efficiency regulations. Using standard Pigouvian externality theory, most environmental regulations are based on the “market failure” rationale …
Michael Giberson When I worked on public policy issues in Washington, DC, I used to read the National Journal. It tended a bit toward Washington-establishment thinking, but at least it gave evidence of thinking. Now much farther from the daily fray, I only occasionally come across the National Journal, and usually just the so-called Energy …
Losing the Race to Sound Conclusions on the Production Tax Credit Read More »
Michael Giberson The significance of the “rebound effect” remains a matter of some debate. (The rebound effect is the frequently observed tendency for energy efficiency improvements to increase consumer use of the now more efficient good or service). Recently the Institute for Energy Research published Robert Michaels’s survey of rebound effects. In the study, Michaels concluded: Properly …
Michael Giberson The coalition in support of wind power’s Production Tax Credit has always had a bit of a “Baptists and Bootleggers” flavor: environmentalists making a clean and green argument in favor of wind power and the multinational wind power development corporations funding the political muscle needed to get things done. The coalition has proven …
The Fraying of Support for Wind Power’s Ptc Subsidy Read More »
Michael Giberson The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that pesticide drifting across property lines onto an organic farmer’s crop does not constitute a trespass under state law. The court dismissed the trespass claim as well as accompanying claims asserting nuisance and negligence under laws that govern organic farming. The organic farming laws regulate what a …
Minnesota Supreme Court Rules Pesticide Drift is Not a Trespass, but Might Be a Nuisance Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Several people have pointed out the remarkable fact that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion have fallen almost to 1995 levels. As the Institute for Energy Research noted, The Energy information Administration reports that energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the United States are 2.4 percent less in 2011 than they were in …
Co2 Emission Reductions: Fracking, Recession, Renewables? Read More »
Pierre-Olivier Pineau’s opinion piece in the Montreal Gazette makes a case for greater harmonization of electric power markets among Canadian provinces.
In effect, US PREF analyzes subsidies as if the companies, workers, and investors have no alternative prospects for income and would consume less electric power in the absence of subsidies for solar PV projects. In addition, US PREF ignores conventional analytical tools for investment analysis (net present value, for instance) even as it tries to claim that the solar investment tax credit is a good investment. I’d rate the report a FAILED policy analysis.
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