“It is time to do now what was not done in 1999 in Texas. First, deregulate the electricity market, do not re-regulate it under a new regime. That means removing public utility regulation of rates and other terms of service, as well as end the franchise protection over geographical territory.”
The Texas Electric Utility Restructuring Act of 1999 is approaching a quarter-century. And what a mess has resulted from the misnomer “electricity deregulation.” A monopoly wholesale market under mandatory open-access rules is central planning pure and simple. The idea that a ‘competitive’ retail market rescues a governmental wholesale market from the knowledge problem and politicization (per Lynne Kiesling, Michael Giberson, etc.) has been turned upside down in Texas and elsewhere.
I was reminded of this upon reading a 500-word commentary from Doug Sheridan on LinkedIn.…
“The border tax adjustment would be hugely complex given the international supply-chain system, leading to an increase in the attendant bureaucracy even if the regulatory bureaucracy is reduced in size.”
“The CLC proposal is poor conceptually and deeply unserious.”
Six years ago, economist Ben Zycher, the John Searle chair at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), published an analysis that rings true today–if not more true. “The Deeply-Flawed Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax,” subtitled “’Conservatives’ Endorse the Broken-Windows Fallacy, Reject Evidence and Rigor,” outlined the arguments that once-proud Resources for the Future would not.
Zycher’s piece employed Economics 101 to refute a proposal from the Climate Leadership Council, the Baker-Shultz ‘Carbon Dividends Plan’, that attempted to fool Republicans and conservatives that carbon dioxide (CO2) was a pollutant that the U.S.…
“If you want to continue to be frustrated with a failing worldview, stay in your present state of denial. If you want to better understand reality and be happier, a different worldview based on sound intellectual premises and comporting to the real world awaits. The choice is yours.”
In a recent piece in DRILLED, climate activist Amy Westervelt asked: “Why is Fairness Being Ceded to the Fossil Fuel Industry?” The simple answer is the physical fact of energy density and the verdict of billions of us all day, every day, resulting in a global market share of fossil fuels of 82 percent. (And that percentage should be 90 percent or so if government was energy-neutral.)
Ms. Westervelt should read Vaclav Smil to understand what energy density is (the sun’s work over the ages); why it drives energy markets (superior economics); and why renewables are worse for the environment (land and other infrastructure bloat).…