When you’ve found two of everything else. That’s the conclusion of a fascinating, if disappointing, paper about the ivory-billed woodpecker in the latest issue of Conservation Biology. Most experts believe the “Lord God” bird was driven to extinction in the middle of the twentieth century. Occasional reports of sightings, however, have kept some hope alive. A report [...]
Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
When Should You Stop Looking for a Possibly-Extinct Species?
Posted in Environment, Nature, tagged Biology, Birds, Statistics on February 7, 2012 | 2 Comments »
The Natural Gas Glut is Reshaping Electricity Markets
Posted in Energy, Environment, tagged Coal, Energy, Environment, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Wind on January 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Over at Bloomberg, Julie Johnsson and Mark Chediak document how low natural gas prices are reshaping electricity markets. Wind, nuclear, and coal all look expensive compared to natural gas generation: With abundant new supplies of gas making it the cheapest option for new power generation, the largest U.S. wind-energy producer, NextEra Energy Inc. (NEE), has shelved [...]
Oil and Natural Gas Prices Move Even Further Apart
Posted in Energy, Environment, Microeconomics, tagged Energy, Natural Gas, Oil on January 9, 2012 | 3 Comments »
In 2010, I wrote a series of posts documenting how oil and natural prices had decoupled from each other (see here and here). For many years, oil prices (as measured in $ per barrel) were typically 6 to 12 times natural gas prices (as measured in $ per MMBtu). That ratio blew out to around [...]
What Should We Do With Higher Gas Tax Revenues?
Posted in Budget, Energy, Environment, tagged Budget, Gasoline, Infrastructure, Oil, Taxes on November 1, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Most of the economics bloggers I know favor higher gasoline taxes. Not immediately, of course, given our economic weakness. But eventually because of environmental and national security concerns. As noted yesterday, Tim Kane of the Kauffman Foundation does a quarterly survey of economics bloggers. This time around, Tim included a question from me about the [...]
Taxes and Energy Policy
Posted in Budget, Energy, Environment, Politics, tagged Energy, Environment, Politics, Taxes on September 29, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Last week I had the opportunity to testify before two Ways and Means subcommittees–Select Revenue Measures and Oversight–about the way our tax system is used as a tool of energy policy. Here are my opening remarks. You can find my full testimony here. As you know, our tax system is desperately in need of reform. It’s needlessly complex, economically [...]
Congestion Pricing Saves Time and Money
Posted in Budget, Energy, Environment, Microeconomics, tagged CBO, Infrastructure, Pricing, Taxes, Transportation on May 18, 2011 | 4 Comments »
The Highway Trust Fund will soon be broke. Gasoline tax revenues haven’t kept up with spending, and it’s likely that demands for new highway infrastructure will grow in the future. Joseph Kile, head of the microeconomics studies division at the Congressional Budget Office, discussed various policy options to deal with this funding gap in his testimony [...]
Can Natural Gas Replace Oil for Diesel?
Posted in Energy, Environment, tagged Energy, Natural Gas, Oil on December 24, 2010 | 4 Comments »
In a series of posts (most recent here), I’ve noted that oil and natural gas prices have become unhinged from each other. Oil (denominated in $ per barrel) used to trade at 6 to 12 times the price of natural gas (denominated in $ per MMBtu). But lately that ratio has been north of 20, [...]
Will Budget Concerns Ever Influence Carbon Policy?
Posted in Energy, Environment, Politics, tagged Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Politics, Taxes on October 10, 2010 | 7 Comments »
Climate change legislation died an ignominious death in the Senate earlier this year. If you’d like to understand why, check out Ryan Lizza’s autopsy of the effort in the latest New Yorker. Lizza documents how the “tripartisan” trio of John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham came up short in their effort to craft a [...]
Water Funds: Coase in South America (and New York)
Posted in Environment, Microeconomics, tagged Brazil, Coase, Colombia, Ecuador, Environment, New York City, Property, Water on October 3, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Rivers often create important resource conflicts. Downstream cities want clean water to drink. Upstream residents want to make a living, but that sometimes damages water quality. In the highlands above Quito, Ecuador, for example, residents often convert land to farming and ranching; that allows them to raise valuable crops and livestock, but weakens the land’s [...]
Nickels Matter: Pigou and the Plastic Bag
Posted in Behavioral Economics, Environment, Microeconomics, tagged Behavioral Economics, Environment, Taxes on September 20, 2010 | 10 Comments »
On January 1, Washington DC introduced a 5-cent tax on disposable shopping bags at grocery, drug, convenience, and liquor stores. The fee had two goals: to reduce the number of bags, in particular plastic ones, that end up blighting the landscape and to raise funds for cleaning up the Anacostia River. The fee appears to be succeeding on [...]
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