My take on why Jeff Bingaman as Energy Secretary doesn’t make a lot of sense: But there is a story I’ve heard told enough times that, if it’s not true, it ought to be. When Bill Richardson was being considered for the position of Energy Secretary in 1998, he asked Bingaman what he thought. Bingaman’s …
Here’s another remarkable measure of “income elasticity” – the consumption response to being (or feeling) broke: That’s EIA’s “petroleum product supplied”, which is a good proxy for gasoline consumption. Contrary to a bizarre story in the New York Times last week, gasoline consumption has fallen off a cliff since early September. The Times story suggests …
Elasticity – consumers’ changing demand for a good – comes in two flavors. When prices go up, we consume less. But we also consume less when we’re broke, which is what’s happening today in the auto market. Gas prices are dropping like a stone in a pond, but as James Hamilton notes, we’re not buying …
Economists sometimes get a bad rap – the unfair belief that they worship at the alter of markets above all else, ignoring real problems as a result. In fact, a great deal of contemporary economics is focused on the opposite – understanding the places where markets fail, and helping craft policies that can make up …
David Strahan in the Independent: A falling oil price has real short-term benefits. Petrol has dropped below £1 per litre for the first time in almost a year; domestic heat and power bills should eventually follow; food prices and inflation should also ease, giving the monetary authorities greater freedom to cut interest rates. But these …
David Henderson on energy independence: [T]he case for being “dependent” on other countries for oil is the same as the case for being dependent on other countries for bananas or coffee. At some tariff-protected price, the United States could be self-sufficient in bananas or coffee. If the price were high enough, someone would grow bananas …
Continue reading ‘The Rhetorical Attractiveness of “Energy Independence”’ »
On the cost of nuclear power.
I was annoyed at the McCain campaign for not answering my energy policy questions. Turns out I am not alone.
I totally made Env-Econ today! So I quote Whitehead, he links to me, then I link back to him. Will the totally bogus circular linkage chain be broken? Your move, John….
An AP story a couple of days ago is a reminder of why I’m so pessimistic about the possibility of effective climate change mitigation. People want energy, and they want it cheap. The story opens with a young Welsh man, whose father and grandfather worked the mines: “I couldn’t believe it when I heard there …