Knowledge Problem

Texas Terminates Agreement with Oil Industry-backed Lizard Conservation Group

A few years ago the state of Texas helped fight calls to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as endangered by supporting an oil industry-backed foundation to oversee lizard habitat and promote habitat conservation efforts. Conservation groups were loudly skeptical of the Texas Habitat Conservation Foundation (THCF) due to its close ties to the oil industry.

Michael Giberson March 26, 2016 1 Comment

Power Up: The Framework for a New ERA of UK Energy Distribution

The Adam Smith Institute has published a research report I wrote for them, Power Up: The framework for a new era of UK energy distribution. From the press release: The report … argues that new technologies such as smart grids and distributed energy production can revolutionise old models of energy distribution and pricing, in the

Lynne Kiesling November 11, 2015 No Comments

2015 Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton

Angus Deaton is the worthy and deserving winner of this year’s economics Nobel. The arc of his work, from theory to data to empirical application, has been consumption, measuring consumption, and consumption as an indicator of well-being, poverty, and inequality. His analyses also incorporate political economy as a factor influencing those relationships and incentives. If

Lynne Kiesling October 12, 2015 3 Comments

Cooperation Between Bird-watchers and Hot-rodders

Dwight Lee writes of cooperation between antagonists, fostered by private ownership: [M]ost members of the Audubon Society surely see the large sport utility vehicles and high-powered cars encouraged by abundant petroleum supplies as environmentally harmful. That perception, along with the environmental risks associated with oil recovery, helps explain why the Audubon Society vehemently opposes drilling

Michael Giberson August 19, 2015 No Comments

Should We Make It Politically Profitable for Policymakers to Do the Right Thing

Should we make it politically profitable for policymakers to do the right thing, or should we make it less profitable for policymakers to do anything? Abigail Hall, writing a pair of posts for the Independent Institute blog The Beacon, urges liberty-minded people not to get too excited about electing the “right people.” (First post, second)

Michael Giberson August 7, 2015 No Comments

Cass Sunstein on Regulatory Analysis and the Knowledge Problem

Cass Sunstein begins: With respect to the past and future of regulation, there are two truly indispensable ideas. Unfortunately, they are in serious tension with one another. Potential solutions lie in three reforms, all connected with democracy itself – but perhaps not quite in the way that most people think. The first indispensable idea is

Michael Giberson August 6, 2015 3 Comments

Will Raising the Minimum Bid in Federal Oil and Gas Lease Auctions Boost Auction Revenue?

The short answer to the title question is probably not. In the Department of the Interior’s rulemaking docket concerning the financial terms governing oil and gas leasing on federal lands, a handful of comments endorsed the idea of raising the minimum bid in lease auctions as a way to increase federal revenues. But, as explained

Michael Giberson July 31, 2015 No Comments

Abbacus Report Highlights Benefits of Retail Electric Markets

On Tuesday the Distributed Energy Financial Group released its 2015 report, Annual Baseline Assessment of Choice in Canada and the United States (ABACCUS). The report provides an excellent overview of the current state of retail electricity markets in the 18 jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada that permit at least some degree of retail competition. The

Lynne Kiesling July 30, 2015 3 Comments

Dot’s Airline Price Gouging Investigation and a Political Economy-based Prediction

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced it had launched an investigation into possible “unfair practices (e.g., price gouging) affecting air travel during the period of time that Amtrak service along the Northeast Corridor was delayed or suspended as a result of the May 12th derailment.” Five airlines received letters from the agency seeking

Michael Giberson July 28, 2015 1 Comment

Dallas Morning News on Competitive Retail Power Market Fees and Rate Designs in Texas

At the Dallas Morning News James Osborne reports on the controversy over minimum use fees in the competitive retail power market that includes most Texas households. As discussed here at Knowledge Problem last week, retail suppliers sometimes design contract offers to be especially cheap for consumers using 1000 kWh per month. The state’s powertochoose.org website

Michael Giberson July 20, 2015 No Comments

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