subsidies

Dairy Farming, Tariffs, and Trump’s “12 Billion Dollar Crutches”

1 Comment / Economics / By

Farming has always been an uncertain business. Weather and the price-taking nature of being small relative to large commodity markets lead to feast or famine. The Trump Trade War and today’s palliative farm subsidies to farmers harmed by Trump’s tariffs combine with pre-existing subsidies to amplify that underlying boom and bust cycle, imposing high costs on …

Dairy Farming, Tariffs, and Trump’s “12 Billion Dollar Crutches” Read More »

Lobbyists for Wind and Solar Energy Ready to Fight Doe Grid Policy Study

Electricity, Politics, Regulation, Uncategorized / By

Soon after Energy Secretary Rick Perry requested DOE staff to prepare a report on how public policies affected the electric power grid, lobbyists for the wind energy and solar energy industries struck back. In an op-ed appearing in The Hill, Megan Hansen and I identify why we think the renewable power industries are so sensitive …

Lobbyists for Wind and Solar Energy Ready to Fight Doe Grid Policy Study Read More »

Looking for Renewable Policy Certainty in All the Wrong Places

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

From EnergyWire comes the headline, “In Missouri, industry wants off the ‘solar coaster’.” (link here via Midwest Energy News). A utility rebate program authorized by voters in 2008 is making Missouri into a solar leader in the Midwest. But $175 million set aside to subsidize solar installations is [nearly] fully subscribed … and the same small …

Looking for Renewable Policy Certainty in All the Wrong Places Read More »

Better Red Than Dead, but Not Red Yet (on Solar Power)

3 Comments / Economics, Electricity, Energy markets / By

In her New York Times Economix column Nancy Folbre recently said (“The Red Faces of the Solar Skeptics,” March 10, 2014): If the faces of renewable energy critics are not red yet, they soon will be. For years, these critics — of solar photovoltaics in particular — have called renewable energy a boutique fantasy. A recent Wall …

Better Red Than Dead, but Not Red Yet (on Solar Power) Read More »

Debating Wind Power Cost Estimates – 3

Electricity, Energy markets, Environmental policy, Regulation / By

[Series header: On the Morning of October 15 the Institute for Energy Research in Washington DC released a report I’d written about wind power cost estimates sponsored by the federal government. (Links available here.) Later that day Michael Goggin of the American Wind Energy Association, the lobbying organization in Washington DC that represents the wind …

Debating Wind Power Cost Estimates – 3 Read More »

Perverse Outcomes of Water Subsidies

Economics, Environmental policy, Regulation / By

I’m intruding on David Zetland’s turf, but in this 2012 Guardian article from 2012 Roger Cowe makes some compelling arguments about why agricultural water subsidies lead to perverse outcomes, do not help the poor, and waste a precious, scarce resource. Water is the only industry in which regulation more perversely stifles self-organizing processes for managing scarcity …

Perverse Outcomes of Water Subsidies Read More »

Is Iowa Solar Power Ruling a Camel’s Nose into Electric Utility’s Monopoly Tent?

3 Comments / Electricity, Energy markets, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson Eagle Point Solar, a for-profit solar power installer and operator, proposed to build a solar PV array on a Dubuque, Iowa municipal building under a long-term contract with the city. Under the contract, Eagle Point would own the solar array and sell power to the city in a “behind the meter” arrangement. The …

Is Iowa Solar Power Ruling a Camel’s Nose into Electric Utility’s Monopoly Tent? Read More »

Free Solar Power Tomorrow!

3 Comments / Electricity, Environmental policy, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson Well, not free-free, but subsidy-free. Maybe. When I read a headline promising “Solar Power to Hit Cost Parity Next Year,” it reminds me of the sign above the bar promising “Free Beer Tomorrow.” Like tomorrow, “next year” is always approaching and never here. RP Siegel begins his Triple Pundit article, “Solar Power to Hit …

Free Solar Power Tomorrow! Read More »

Fossil Energy Subsidies and Renewable Energy Competitiveness

5 Comments / Energy markets, Environmental policy / By

Michael Giberson Some, not all, of you believe that fossil fuel energy gain massive and undeserved subsidies from the federal government, that such subsidies way outweigh subsidies for renewable energy, and that subsidies for fossil fuels undermine the market success of renewable energy. You may want to read Severin Borenstein’s post, “Are Fossil Fuel Subsidies …

Fossil Energy Subsidies and Renewable Energy Competitiveness Read More »

Negative Power Prices Due to Wind Power’s Subsidy

Electricity, Energy markets, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson On the NYTimes.com Green blog, Matthew Wald reports on “An argument over wind.” The issue is the scheduled-to-expire Production Tax Credit for wind power. As previously mentioned here, former PTC-supporter Exelon Corp. has come out against the PTC extension. It parted ways from the American Wind Energy Association, of which it had long …

Negative Power Prices Due to Wind Power’s Subsidy Read More »

Copyright © 2022 Knowledge Problem Archive