by Sean Casten
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The $9 Billion Man
Clean energy opportunities 0
Posted 4 days, 11 hours ago Earlier this month, the Department of Energy announced $155 million worth of grants to clean energy projects -- specifically targeted to CHP, waste heat recovery, and district energy. There's an even better backstory. Read More -
Hunting with Fishing Poles
Can perfect markets induce capital investment? 0
Posted 1 week, 4 days ago Question: are there any examples of a completely free market inducing investment in mature, capital-intensive industries? I’m not sure there are. More problematically, I’m not sure that economists and policy makers appreciate this reality. The result is that we continue to create markets -- from electricity to CO2 -- that by design are incapable of rewarding or encouraging capital investment. In electricity markets, this has created a situation in which the wholesale prices are insufficient to encourage new investment and -- if left unchecked -- could lead to serious power supply shortfalls. In CO2 markets, this has the potential to… Read More -
Still fallacious
The perfect market fallacy 9
Posted 2 months ago A "market" is nothing more than a description of our collective allocation of resources. Economists refer to markets as being efficient only when they meet a specific set of conditions, at which point the benefits that accrue from Adam Smith's invisible hand are realized through the independent actions of profit-seeking actors. But most markets are inefficient--often woefully so. Read More -
Hayward J'Buzzoff
The problem with unspoken assumptions 1
Posted 2 months ago Steven Hayward's OpEd in the Wall St. Journal yesterday ("No: Alternatives Simply Too Expensive") really annoyed me the first time I read it. Read More -
How much energy does the U.S. waste? 14
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago Any increase in our efficiency of energy conversion is implicitly a reduction in our energy waste. Read More -
Why CO2 regulation will lead to lower electricity prices 2
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago Excluding those who question whether we need a greenhouse gas policy at all, the debate is fundamentally one about where certainty is most important. What all agree on is that uncertainty is unacceptable. But do we really have that much uncertainty? Read More -
Yes, we Kahn
Carbon trading: Worthy of Feinstein’s ire? 18
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago "Deregulation shifts the major burden of consumer protection to the competitive market, and therefore, in important measure, to the enforcement of antitrust laws." - Alfred E. Kahn, Lessons for Deregulation: Telecommunications and Airlines after the Crunch.I've always found the above to be one of the wiser quotes about deregulation. What does this have to do with commodities and Senator Feinstein? Recently, she announced a proposed amendment to the Senate climate bill, one that would commence federal oversight of CO2 markets "to prevent Enron-like fraud, manipulation and excessive speculation in the new federal, state and regional carbon markets… Read More
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A tale of two emissions factors
How much CO2 do our nation’s coal and gas plants actually produce? 7
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago Since 1960, the natural gas power fleet has become less and less CO2 intensive, while the coal fleet has become more and more CO2 intensive. What explains this trend? One word: competition. Read More -
Breaching the dams
How fast can the US electric sector reform? 8
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago Is the electric sector capable of rapid, large scale reform? Many policies implicitly assume the answer to that question is No, especially when it comes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission control.The result is a policy conversation that hinges on the assumption that it is hard to change. How much must we spend to accelerate new technology? How many decades should we allow for a phase-in of new regulations?
As it turns out, the industry can change -- and indeed, has changed -- at a much faster pace than you might think. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it turns out to… Read More
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T Boone's gonna love this
How to shut down 93% of coal without building new plants or reducing power supply 27
Posted 5 months, 4 weeks ago A quick analysis shows that the underutilized U.S. natural gas power plant fleet could quickly ramp up to take most coal off-line -- at fairly low cost. Paging a Mr. Pickens! Read More
