Michael Giberson As noted here at KP in August, a group of electric power economists (including me) filed an amicus brief on FERC’s demand response pricing rule. At the Master Resource blog, Travis Fisher examines the issue with some detail. Here is a bit: In Order No. 745, FERC reasoned that, “when a demand response …
‘Demand Response’ in Electricity: Economists Vs. FERC on (Over)Pricing Read More »
Lynne Kiesling A couple of days ago I outlined some remarks I gave at a regulation conference organized by the Istituto Bruno Leoni, and I asked what some of the risks are associated with electricity regulation. In the comments on that post, Ed Reid and David Zetland touched on what I think are two important …
Lynne Kiesling What horrific events in Japan. I was very sorry to awaken to hear of such devastation, and the videos I’ve seen and the fact that the aftershocks and waves have been almost continuous for the past 12 hours sound completely terrifying. As the tsunami waves rippled out, though, it didn’t take long for …
Another Economic Illiteracy Alert, This One from Larry Summers, Ph.d. Read More »
Lynne Kiesling As I’ve mentioned before, I am passionately and actively opposed to the TSA’s fear-based violations of the rights and dignity of individuals. But my opposition extends beyond the moral and philosophical into the economic … and some recent commentaries indicate that I am not the only one! First let’s think about the cost …
Michael Giberson Should public policy accommodate the irrational fears of non-voters? In this case, the phrase “irrational fears” refers to a seemingly innate overwhelming aversion to vertical structures, namely wind turbines and high-voltage transmission lines, and “non-voters” refers to the lesser prairie chicken. A few weeks ago the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal ran a story on wildlife …
Wind Power, Birds, Public Policy, and the Irrational Fears of Non-voters Read More »
Lynne Kiesling I am in violent agreement with my friend Todd Zywicki’s commentary in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal on the Obama administration’s actions in the Chrysler bankruptcy. In particular, By stepping over the bright line between the rule of law and the arbitrary behavior of men, President Obama may have created a thousand new failing …
Todd Zywicki: the Commerce Clause is in the Constitution for a Reason Read More »
Lynne Kiesling At the Atlantic’s newish business web site, Greg Clark has a very good post on the history of government spending in Britain. He starts in the early post-Magna Carta period: In England, for example, from the Magna Carta of 1215 until the Glorious Revolution of 1689, public debt was always tiny — a …
An Economic History Lesson on Fiscal Responsibility Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Count me in as a taxpayer, mortgage holder, and economist who thinks that the Obama mortgage bailout program is bad policy-it’s expensive with little obvious benefit, it creates bad incentives and ex post rewards bad decisions (bad decisions that were abetted by bad government policy), and it’s morally reprehensible. Peter Klein’s remarks on …
Lynne Kiesling From Reason, a good read from Steve Chapman on energy efficiency, particularly stricter fuel efficiency mandates. He does a good job of doing something that not enough people think about: people object to policies that will increase the price of gasoline (such as a gas tax, a carbon tax, or carbon trading), but …
Michael Giberson Via the Associated Press and San Diego Union-Tribune: PHOENIX – Saying they won’t hurt Arizona utility customers to benefit Californians, [Arizona] state regulators on Wednesday rejected a utility’s plan to build a $581 million cross-desert power transmission line to carry electricity generated at plants in Arizona to customers in California. In an essay, …
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