Regulation – Page 9 – Knowledge Problem

Continuing Debate over the Economic Origins of Electric Utility Regulation

Economic history, Economics, Electricity, Regulation / By Michael Giberson

State regulation of electric utilities began in earnest about 1907 and by around 1920 almost all states had begun state regulation. Prior to state regulation, most electric utilities were regulated through city-issued franchise agreements. Was state regulation of privately-owned electric utilities efficiency enhancing relative to the municipal franchise regulation of electric utilities that preceded it? …

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Eia Shows Higher Wind Power Output Cutting into Baseload Power Generation

6 Comments / Economics, Electricity, Energy markets, Regulation / By Michael Giberson

The Energy Information Administration’s “Today in Energy” series shows with a couple of charts how growing wind power output in the Southwest Power Pool region is cutting into the income of baseload power plants. The effect matters because baseload power plants tend to have the lowest operating costs. As baseload plants get pushed off the …

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Energy Imports and Energy Security: a View from 1970

1 Comment / Economic history, Economics, Energy markets, Regulation / By Michael Giberson

A few weeks back George Schultz posted a few happy memories on a Hoover Institution website from his time heading Nixon’s Cabinet Task Force on Oil Import Control way back in 1969 and 1970. The task force was charged with reviewing the existing mandatory oil import quotas, first imposed under the Eisenhower administration, and recommending …

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Will Domestic Health and Tourism Concerns Lead China to Curb Pollution?

1 Comment / Economics, Environmental policy, Regulation / By Lynne Kiesling

Take these two facts and consider them together: (1) China’s air quality has been notoriously poor for the past three decades or so; and (2) according to the BP statistical Review of World Energy, China’s energy use and coal use relative to other countries indicates that any greenhouse-gas-reducing policies by other countries are likely to …

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Exit, Voice, and Lp&l

1 Comment / Electricity, Energy markets, Politics, Regulation / By Michael Giberson

For many years Lubbock, Texas was the largest or among the largest cities with dual, competing electric utilities. If a consumer was unhappy with utility A, all it took was a phone call and about three days and the consumer would be hooked up to utility B. Standard economic theory suggests that such an arrangement …

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Raisin’ a Complaint Against Usda Marketing Orders

Economics, Law, Liberty, Regulation / By Michael Giberson

Can raisin growers pack and sell all of the raisins they grow? Yes, but only if the USDA permits it. Sometimes the USDA claims the right to take raisins off the market in the effort to keep the price to consumers higher. If a raisin grower doesn’t comply with the USDA’s demands, then the government’s …

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Bruce Yandle on Bootleggers & Baptists

Economics, Environmental policy, Regulation / By Lynne Kiesling

Bruce Yandle’s “bootleggers & Baptists” model of political coalition formation is one of the most useful models in the political economy of regulation (and one that both Mike and I employ frequently, as seen by our many posts using the model). Here’s a great new Learn Liberty video featuring Bruce himself describing how coalitions of …

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Nsa Surveillance Imperils the Internet As an Economic Platform

3 Comments / Economics, Regulation, Technology / By Lynne Kiesling

Today’s new revelations from Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing show that the NSA can, and does, use a program that surveils our Internet behavior in a general, blanket way (much in the nature of the “general warrants” that were the whole reason the authors of the Bill of Rights put the Fourth Amendment in there in the …

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Disruptive Innovation and the Regulated Utility

Economics, Electricity, Regulation, Technology / By Lynne Kiesling

Over the weekend the New York Times ran a good story about how rooftop solar and regulatory rules allowing net metering are putting pressure on the regulated distribution utility business model: The struggle over the California incentives is only the most recent and visible dust-up as many utilities cling to their established business, and its …

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Honey, Someone Hacked Our Smart Home

8 Comments / Electricity, Regulation, Technology / By Lynne Kiesling

Ever since the first “vision” meeting I attended at the Department of Energy in 2003 about the technologically advanced electric power grid of the future, digital network security in a smart grid has been a paramount concern. Much of the concern emphasizes hardening the electrical and communication networks against nefarious attempts to access control rooms …

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