Politics

National Renewable Power Standards? Still Not Practical

1 Comment / Electricity, Energy markets, Environmental policy, Politics / By

Michael Giberson Some news reports are suggesting the U.S. is now less likely to pass climate change legislation, but prospects for policies boosting renewable power may have improved slightly. Ever more timely, then, is this 2008 analysis of proposed national renewable portfolio standards by Jay Apt, Lester Lave, and Sompop Pattanariyankool: “A national renewable portfolio …

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Industry, Environmental Group Working on Shale Gas Drilling Rules

2 Comments / Energy markets, Environmental policy, Politics / By

Michael Giberson The Environmental Defense Fund’s Scott Anderson and Southwestern Energy EVP Mark Boling have been working together on proposed environmental rules to govern the use of hydraulic fracturing, a key technique in the development of shale gas resources. The Houston Chronicle reports: Energy companies and environmental groups have more often been adversaries than allies …

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Do We Need “Post-partisan Power”?

4 Comments / Energy markets, Environmental policy, Politics, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson Last week scholars from the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institutions, and the Breakthrough Institute joined together to release “Post-Partisan Power,” (more here) a paper advocating substantial increases in federal spending on energy research and development in pursuit of goals including American economic growth, national security, and health and safety. They lost me at …

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Concentrated Benefits and Dispersed Costs

3 Comments / Economics, Politics / By

Michael Giberson Recently I went looking for a source for the idea that special interest lobbying succeeds due to the logic of concentrated benefits and dispersed costs. Frequently in economics and especially among public choice analysts the concept is attributed to Mancur Olson and sometimes specifically to The Logic of Collective Action. For example, in …

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What Market Design Can Do for You

Economics, Politics, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson Medicare pays medical equipment suppliers based on indexed-adjustments to a price list established 25 years ago. It is extremely unlikely that these prices are efficient. For the past 10 years Medicare has explored the possibility of pricing medical equipment via procurement auctions. Their procurement auction plan is fatally flawed. What can market design …

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China’s Central Government-based Energy Conservation Policies

4 Comments / Economics, Politics / By

Michael Giberson Tom Friedman wants to laud the China’s political leadership for their ability to get big things done economically while distancing himself from government’s authoritarian controls on politics. As mentioned in the prior post, Craig Pirrong responds that “it’s a package deal. Governments who think about people purely instrumentally, who think that they can …

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Tom Friedman Wants Us to Get Big Things Done

9 Comments / Economics, Liberty, Politics / By

Michael Giberson I don’t read Tom Friedman’s columns in the New York Times, but apparently Craig Pirrong does, and I read Pirrong’s Streetwise Professor blog, and Pirrong’s latest post on Friedman reminds me again why I don’t read Tom Friedman’s columns. At least I generally avoid Friedman except when someone else calls attention to a …

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Supremo Vs. Invisible Hand: Battle over New Zealand Earthquake Recovery Approach

Economics, Liberty, Politics / By

Michael Giberson Post-earthquake in New Zealand, a battle emerges over the best system for rebuilding: Supremo vs. the Invisible Hand. Supremo has its backers: [Construction economist John Jackson said:] Rebuilding should be led by a “supremo”, such as a senior military officer with engineering corps experience, as was chosen for Darwin, and New Orleans after Hurricane …

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