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 Let’s just say when the best example of a success story is a long-term contract signed by a utility and the Cape Wind project, you haven’t exactly resolved concerns about the practicality or cost-effectiveness of the law. From the Boston Herald, “AG: Energy costs rising under Mass. renewables law“: The Green Communities Act, …
Massachusetts Observes That Green Power Mandates May Be Raising Consumer Costs Read More »
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 If you think political interference in gasoline markets is excessive, try reading about drug pricing for a while. From the Los Angeles Times: “Shortage of cancer drugs tied to simple economics, experts say.” And by “simple economics” they mean the perverse incentives created by government regulation that induce oncologists to prefer prescribing 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 …
Michael Giberson From the most recent American Law and Economics Review, “Retail Gasoline Price Ceilings and Regulatory Capture: Evidence from Canada.” The authors find statistical support for the conclusion that “the enactment of [price ceiling] regulation is correlated with a 1–1.2 cents per liter rise in self-service retail gasoline prices, controlling for all else.” They …
Michael Giberson Laylan Copelin, reporting for the Austin American-Statesman, documents the power system resource issues currently troubling state utility regulators in Texas: “State set to grapple again with question: How to encourage more private-sector power generation?” Texas suffered one rolling blackout last winter and narrowly avoided another this summer. The weather extremes might have exposed …
Lynne Kiesling Here’s an interesting juxtaposition of two prominent executives performing sound public choice analyses, and I think they complement each other, at least in my work! This weekend’s Wall Street Journal featured an interview with Exelon’s John Rowe, A Life in Energy and (Therefore) Politics. Exelon is the third largest investor-owned utility/generation owner in …
Exelon’s John Rowe and Google’s Eric Schmidt: Truth to Power? Read More »
Michael Giberson At Reason.com, social psychologist Jonathon Haidt writes about the foundational moral concerns that animate the Zuccotti Park protestors. Working from a Moral Foundations Theory* perspective, which Haidt and several others have developed, he said, “In my visit to Zuccotti Park, it was clear that the main moral foundation of OWS is fairness, followed …
What Do the Occupy Wall Streeters Care About? Haidt on the Moral Foundations of Ows Read More »
Michael Giberson I’m writing in praise of a New York Times article on natural gas fracking. Yes, really! Even more surprising, I’m writing in praise of a New York Times on fracking written by Ian Urbina. Yes, really! What is this marvel, you ask? I answer, “Rush to Drill for Natural Gas Creates Conflicts With Mortgages.” What is so …
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