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Energy, Environment, Resources
A Category Archive (242 entries)
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October 25, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
David Henderson
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, presidential campaign years give us economists a lot of "teaching moments," that is, chances to educate the public about basic, important economic truths. This campaign year is no different. I... MORE
October 16, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Yesterday I had two lucky breaks at the gas station. First, they cut the price while I pulling up to the pump. Second, a delivery man was refilling the station's tanks, which gave me a chance to ask him some... MORE
October 13, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
I would love to see this question asked at a Presidential debate: If half of the troubled mortgage loans are for non-owner-occupied homes, that is for houses owned by speculators, do your proposals still make sense? My understanding is that... MORE
September 18, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Noted energy economist James Hamilton just spoke at GMU. The two most interesting things he said: 1. OPEC has almost no effect on world oil prices; most countries produce less than their quota, and when countries want to produce more,... MORE
August 24, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
When I was writing my New York Times column on the gas tax, my editor pushed me to argue that other economists were underestimating the price-sensitivity of the supply of gasoline. I resisted. A wide range of economists seemed to... MORE
August 15, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
At Cato Unbound, Jim Manzi argues for low-cost solutions to climate change. Joseph Romm makes the case that we are headed for catastrophe if we do not do anything. My sense is that over the past year, the debate has... MORE
August 13, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Robert Higgs writes, If we were talking about bananas, everybody would see immediately the foolishness of seeking banana independence. Nobody would fall for half-baked arguments about our addiction to foreign bananas or our love affair with banana bread. Its obviously... MORE
August 4, 2008
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Arnold Kling
He suggests that there are no limits to growth. In a special issue of the American Economic Review about thirty years ago, some physical chemists wrote that once the energy problem is solved, nothing is scarce. If material X is... MORE
July 27, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
People seem to be searching harder for bargain gas prices. But according to search theory, the reason to search is price variation, not price. On closer examination of pump prices, though, I want to retract my observation that gas price... MORE
July 24, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Here's something you wouldn't expect Richard Posner to write:I wonder, too, whether the recent decline in U.S. gasoline consumption doesn't represent to some degree an irrational panic reaction. To take a huge loss on the sale of your SUV in... MORE
July 23, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Justin Wolfers says that current price of oil is a better predictor of future oil prices than oil futures markets:And it turns out that they all do worse than one simple forecast: the current oil price. That’s right: the most... MORE
July 18, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Kevin Bullis writes, Over the past couple of weeks, T. Boone Pickens, an oil tycoon, has been using some of his billions to run television ads supporting...what seems to be the biggest wind farm in the country. It would nearly... MORE
July 17, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
From David Evans. The signature of an increased greenhouse effect is a hot spot about 10km up in the atmosphere over the tropics. We have been measuring the atmosphere for decades using radiosondes: weather balloons with thermometers that radio back... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen asks, Over the two previous days oil fell $10.50 a barrel. By definition this is driven by news about supply and demand but has so much news come out so quickly? Maybe the news is that the political... MORE
July 7, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
McKinsey folks write, During the next three to seven years, solar energy’s unsubsidized cost to end customers should equal the cost of conventional electricity in parts of the United States (California and the Southwest) and in Italy, Japan, and Spain.... MORE
July 2, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
New York Mercantile Exchange futures prices actually go out 8 years, and show little decline during that period. As my colleague John Nye suggested this morning, though, a flat nominal price for 8 years with 3% inflation implies a 20%... MORE
July 1, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
I've rarely gained any leverage with Tyler by pointing out his inconsistencies. But I can't resist. Take a look at his first book, In Praise of Commercial Culture. Despite his recent post, this book happily used Julian Simon's refutation of... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Tyler has an especially edifying post on resource scarcity. Most interesting point raised:It's amazing how much, on this issue, some people resort to what can only be called technical analysis -- inferring future price movements from past trends -- when... MORE
June 26, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
In chapter 1 of The Selfish Reason to Have More Kids, I'm going to spend a little time discussing the largely imaginary problem of increasing resource scarcity. I knew the general pattern from folks like Julian Simon, but I wanted... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
James Hamilton writes, The "fundamentals" price of oil depends on a number of factors that cannot be perfectly foreseen. Among these are (1) will the world enter a deep and prolonged recession in 2007, and (2) will global oil production... MORE
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Arnold Kling
Early in 2007, the price of oil was $60 a barrel. Recently, it has been above $130 a barrel. Which of the following does Paul Krugman believe: (a) market fundamentals justified $60 a barrel then, and they justify $130 a... MORE
June 25, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Near the end of a "tiny theoretical paper," Paul Krugman writes, the actual data we have on crude oil don’t show the signatures of a market driven by speculative demand. Inventory data don’t show a big accumulation; and the market... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
1. A big sign saying that due to the increase in "drive-offs," customers using cash now have to pay in advance. 2. A big sign telling customers that the station will soon adopt a discount for cash (and the Texaco... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
During the last energy crisis in the 70s, adults talked a lot about fuel efficiency. Kids often asked, "If gas costs more, why don't you just drive faster?" Adults usually responded, "You actually burn more gas that way." And then... MORE
June 24, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
The Guardian reports James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively... MORE
June 18, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Oil is sold on world markets, and the dollar is now very weak. What would the dollar price of gas be today, if the dollar were as strong as it was back in 2002? Here's a back-of-the-envelope calculation (gas price... MORE
June 15, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
S.1389 proposes Climate Change Education Act - Requires the Director of the National Science Foundation to establish a Climate Change Education Program to: (1) broaden the understanding of climate change, possible long and short-term consequences, and potential solutions; (2) apply... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
The Times (London) reports on a start-up that is using genetically altered bacteria to produce oil, “Our plan is to have a demonstration-scale plant operational by 2010 and, in parallel, we’ll be working on the design and construction of a... MORE
June 13, 2008
Income Distribution
Arnold Kling
Income distribution, education, health care, and oil prices. David Henderson rushes in where few right-of-center economists dare to tread. He talks about the income distribution. The average number of earners per family for the top quintile is 2.16, almost three... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
According to a new Gallup survey, 53% of Americans want price controls on gas. So it looks like the democratic process is failing to deliver the policies the public wants. But wait: 79% of the public opposes gas rationing. Since... MORE
June 6, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
This is a question I asked Robin at today's lunch. Soon afterwards, I learned that AEI just had the first of a series of conferences on this topic, known as "geoengineering":For more than twenty years, policymakers have struggled to find... MORE
June 4, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Megan McArdle writes, Ryan Avent has been doing some great posting on cap and trade versus carbon taxes. With all information known, the two are theoretically identical. But in the real world they will differ; the question is how much.... MORE
May 30, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Megan McArdle writes, Certainly, the long-term economic outlook is extremely uncertain, but I’m not sure what “who knows!” is a better answer to cumulatively worsening climate problems than to cumulatively worsening fiscal problems. Her point is that ignoring climate change... MORE
May 28, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
A reader sent me a gated article claiming that Japan's version of the gax tax holiday passed roughly 100% of the savings on to consumers. But I can't find any confirmation on google. Does anyone know anything about this? Links?... MORE
May 26, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
MIT professors on biosolar cells, life extension, and other hopeful technologies. The discussions are extremely terse, and for that reason somewhat unsatisfying. Freeman Dyson writes, in the context of a review of William Nordhaus' book on global warming, I consider... MORE
May 20, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Peter Orszag writes, because of the long-term nature of climate change, the key issue from an environmental perspective involves the long-term emissions and concentration paths of greenhouse gases, not the year-to-year fluctuations in emissions. The most cost-effective cap-and-trade design would... MORE
May 19, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Charles Engel writes, The amount of oil pumped out of the ground doesn’t just depend on the current price. If I don’t pump the oil today, I can pump it tomorrow. Tomorrow’s price matters, bubble or no bubble. Let’s start... MORE
May 18, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Concerning polling results on the issue of global warmaing, Andrew Gelman writes, Among college grads, there is a big partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans. Among non-graduates, the differences are smaller. This is completely consistent with research that shows that... MORE
May 14, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
As expected, Paul Krugman clarifies his thinking. there are only two things you can do with the world's oil production: consume it, or store it. If the price is above the level at which the demand from end-users is equal... MORE
May 13, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Krugman says that since we're not building up inventories, the high price of oil isn't a bubble:The only way speculation can have a persistent effect on oil prices, then, is if it leads to physical hoarding -- an increase in... MORE
May 7, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
I've finally made the Gray Lady: Today's New York Times features my op-ed inspired by Sunday's post, "I'll Shill for Hillary." I hope critics don't misrepresent me as an economic apostate; I'm not dissenting from the standard analysis, just taking... MORE
April 29, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
According to Iain Murray's new book, the worst disasters come from environmental policy. It is remarkable the magnitude of the harm caused by government relative to the harm caused by the private sector from which it protects us. My co-blogger... MORE
April 27, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
I never thought of these two economists at the same time, until Hamilton called the 2005 Energy Bill "monstrous"!As a result of ethanol subsidies and mandates, the dollar value of what we ourselves throw away in order to produce fuel... MORE
April 25, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
You've probably heard about the famous Simon-Ehrlich wager, but did you know the Ehrlich asked for a rematch? Paul Ehrlich and Steve Schneider proposed to bet $1000 on each on the following:1. The three years 2002-2004 will on average be... MORE
March 6, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
I spell out my conjectures. ScenarioMost Economical TimeframeRemarksCarbon Competition2008-2020Cheapest energy sources, except for political barriersConservation2008-2015Smarter electric grid, better car batteriesNu-cu-lar2013-2030It works, but at what risk?Franken-fuels2020 and beyondThe most likely revolutionSolar Singularity2025 and beyondHope it happens... MORE
March 4, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Nansen G. Saleri writes, Modern science and unfolding technologies will, in all likelihood, double recovery efficiencies. Even a 10% gain in extraction efficiency on a global scale will unlock 1.2 to 1.6 trillion barrels of extra resources -- an additional... MORE
March 3, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
LiveScience quotes Ray Kurzweil. "It is doubling now every two years. Doubling every two years means multiplying by 1,000 in 20 years. At that rate we'll meet 100 percent of our energy needs in 20 years." Simple. Next problem? This... MORE
February 26, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
The Washington Post reports, Under pressure from agriculture industry lobbyists and lawmakers from agricultural states, the Environmental Protection Agency wants to drop requirements that factory farms report their emissions of toxic gases, despite findings by the agency's scientists that the... MORE
February 20, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Marc Danziger writes, For a 3KW installation (about 275 sf of cells), the total cost to me would be approximately $18K. Let us use my favorite asset valuation equation: profitability = rental rate plus appreciation rate minus interest cost The... MORE
February 19, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
He sums up a lot of information including. the amount of land needed to grow enough food to feed a person has plummeted from about one-and-a-quarter acres in 1950 to about half an acre today. Jesse Ausubel, director of the... MORE
February 15, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
When I wrote, Which do you think takes a bigger toll on the environment, owning a dog, or owning an SUV? My bet would be on the dog. I'm thinking of all of the resources that go into dog food.... MORE
February 14, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
The McKinsey Global Institute likes to beat that drum. They argue that in the U.S. and other developed economies, there is a big opportunity to save energy in lighting. In China and developing regions, the opportunity is more efficient heating... MORE
February 13, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
India News reports, The recent cold wave sweeping across Mumbai and other parts of India could be attributed to global warming, experts said Tuesday here at an environmental conference. Thanks to Sean Corrigan for the pointer.... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Bloomberg reports, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company, cut off sales of crude, gasoline and diesel to Exxon Mobil Corp. in retaliation for the freezing of $12 billion in assets in a legal dispute. Two possibilities: 1. Venezuelan... MORE
February 11, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
John Whitehead discusses environmental taboos, including plastic bags and not cleaning up after your dog. Actually, I think that where I live, at least 10 percent of dog-owners do not clean up after their dogs. But I want to raise... MORE
February 6, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
A year ago, I asked:Suppose you surveyed a random sample of Americans with the following question: "Overall, would you rather the climate in the area you live got warmer, got cooler, or stayed the same?"While reading Henderson's encyclopedia, I came... MORE
January 22, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
No, I am not planning that here. It's the name of a new web site, which bears a not-coincidental resemblance to Arts and Letters Daily, an old favorite on our blogroll. Current links include a Time Magazine portrait of Lester... MORE
January 17, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Ross McKitrick writes, In a greenhouse, movement of air is diminished, so the radiative portion of the energy drain must intensify. Physics can predict with certainty that in order to increase outbound radiation from a greenhouse, temperature inside the greenhouse... MORE
January 13, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Robert Bryce writes, Fans of energy independence argue that if the United States stops buying foreign energy, it will deny funds to petro-states such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Hugo Ch¿vez's Venezuela. But the world marketplace doesn't work like that.... MORE
January 6, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Greg Mankiw writes, As a former energy secretary during the Clinton administration, Richardson has presumably studied these issues. But here he demonstrates extraordinary ignorance (or perhaps extraordinary disingenuousness) about the economic impact of cap-and-trade systems. By contrast, Obama shows extraordinary... MORE
January 4, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
The Financial Post reports, Wheat prices alone have risen 92% in the past year, and yesterday closed at US$9.45 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. At the centre of the imminent food catastrophe is corn - the main... MORE
January 3, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
According to an unflattering analysis by Douglas Hoyt, climate models have made 1 correct prediction ("win"), 27 incorrect predictions ("losses"), and 4 predictions that cannot be judged either correct or incorrect ("ties"). Of the models' "losses," the one I consider... MORE
January 2, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
The response to my global warming question has been mostly either bitter denunciation or support, but few answers. However, Anand Gnanadesikan understands what I am looking for. For example, he recommends this paper. This study highlights the role of water... MORE
December 31, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Before I get to that, here is a BBC rebuttal to climate skeptics. The statement that water vapour is "98% of the greenhouse effect" is simply false. In fact, it does about 50% of the work; clouds add another 25%,... MORE
December 21, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
I posed it here. what are the most persuasive reasons for believing that the rise in temperature is due to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide?... MORE
December 20, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
A new economics blogger is really keen to hike the gas tax. You may criticize the high-tax ways of Europe, but here the latter is dead right: with taxes at $5-6 a gallon, they are about right in pricing the... MORE
December 19, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
The nonsense comes from Robert Zubrin The only way to break the monopoly on the vehicle fuel supply currently held by OPEC is through legislation. Congress should require that all future vehicles sold in the United States be flexible-fueled, capable... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
James Hamilton see hope. these numbers convince me that we are likely to see a significant increase in production in 2008, and an economic downturn would surely produce a drop in demand. I'm standing by the assessment I offered last... MORE
December 17, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
I'm not sure why I never came across this site before. It expresses views that are quite close to mine. For example, The modelers begin with certain assumptions about climate that they build into the model. For example, the computers... MORE
December 11, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Mathematician David Evans writes, After further research, new high-resolution ice core results (data points only a few hundred years apart) in 2000–2003 allowed us to distinguish which came first, the temperature rises or the CO2 rises. We found that temperature... MORE
December 6, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Former frequent commenter General Specific writes, In a subsequent post, I'll consider each of these issues in more detail. In the mean time, Wikipedia has a page up on this topic. And in particular, consider the case of Carl Wunsch,... MORE
December 5, 2007
Economic Methods
Arnold Kling
Bryan writes, isn't Arnold's standard of scientific evidence strangely strict? Few results in economics rest on an "experiment or a naturally-occurring event where the results are extremely unlikely to occur unless X is true." I thought I was simply stating... MORE
December 4, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Katy of Sybil's Star posts The Great Global Warming Swindle, a counter-documentary on Global Warming. It comes across as very persuasive, but I take the view that you can make a persuasive propaganda film for just about any position on... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Here's a gem of ridicule from my colleague Russ Roberts. The National Academy of Sciences reports that divorce is bad for environment, because singles use more resources than couples. Russ exposes this "finding" as a bizarre combination of the obvious... MORE
November 30, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Some recent stories about solar power. 1. Solar concentration technology: A new mechanism for focusing light on small areas of photovoltaic material could make solar power in residential and commercial applications cheaper than electricity from the grid in most markets... MORE
November 20, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Fortune Magazine reports on Al Gore joining the venture capital firm Kleiner-Perkins: "What we are going to have to put in place is a combination of the Manhattan Project, the Apollo project, and the Marshall Plan, and scale it globally,"... MORE
November 8, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Ricardo Hausmann writes, Rodrigo Wagner and I have estimated that there are some 95 countries that have more than 700m hectares of good quality land that is not being cultivated. Depending on assumptions about productivity per hectare, today’s oil production... MORE
November 4, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
I took a lot of notes on 4 talks given at "MIT on the Road." Unlike the Valley Guys, who think that four new JavaScript function calls constitutes an economic revolution, the MIT folks had lots of interesting things to... MORE
October 24, 2007
Income Distribution
Arnold Kling
Terry J. Fitzgerald in the Minneapolis Fed Review: Fringe benefits have become an increasingly important part of employee compensation over the past 30 years. The BLS estimates that benefits currently account for about 30 percent of employer costs for employee... MORE
October 18, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Yes, I'm an elitist: When laymen and experts disagree, my presumption is that the laymen are wrong and the experts are right. Whether the subject is economics, toxicology, or global warming, that's my starting point (though not always my ending... MORE
October 4, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Megan McArdle points to Scott Adams At the risk of oversimplifying, our current energy policy in The United States involves shooting bearded people. At the risk of stepping on a funny line, I would say that our energy policy is... MORE
October 1, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Megan McArdle discusses the issue of whether urban hipsters or suburban ticky-tackies have the more carbon-intensive lifestyle. This is one of those questions for which the answer is too difficult to calculate. For example, there was a story making the... MORE
September 21, 2007
Macroeconomics
Arnold Kling
Olivier Blanchard and Jordi Gali write, Since the 1970s, and at least until recently, macroeconomists have viewed changes in the price of oil as as an important source of economic fluctuations, as well as a paradigm of a global shock,... MORE
September 16, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
From a Wall Street Journal story: The biggest political battle in Washington over climate change may not pit Democrats against Republicans. Instead, it could be economists versus politicians. Many academics, even conservatives, favor a tax on carbon emissions. Many lawmakers,... MORE
August 28, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
He writes, The warming effect of carbon dioxide is strongest where air is cold and dry, mainly in the arctic rather than in the tropics, mainly in mountainous regions rather than in lowlands, mainly in winter rather than in summer,... MORE
August 24, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren write, some observers have argued that if gasoline taxes were increased and other taxes decreased so that overall revenue remained constant, a gasoline tax hike would provide a “double dividend.” That is, it would... MORE
August 12, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
When Democratic candidates were asked, "What would you do to reduce gas prices?," their answers made very little sense. Which brings me to a Jeopardy-inspired puzzle: If those were their answers, what question were they really answering? To what policy... MORE
August 11, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Democratic candidates were asked "What would you do to reduce gas prices?" Their answers, with one exception, should make any economist wince. Here's Dodd, who leads with a long-winded complaint about foreign energy dependence and global warming, and ends with:I've... MORE
August 9, 2007
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Michael Cannon describes how the self-selection process in politics works against my ideas for reforming health care. “Insulation” is another term for spending Other People’s Money. Politicians are predisposed not to see spending Other People’s Money as a problem, because... MORE
August 6, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Kevin Hassett writes If you want some action in the next few years, you can operate in existing markets. If you want to buy the right to sell your alternative fuel for the equivalent of $70 at any time in... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
James C. McWilliams writes, For many purposes that are well demonstrated with present practices, AOS models are very useful even without the necessity of carefully determining their precision compared with nature. These models are structurally unstable in various ways that... MORE
August 4, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
In the past, I've asked people if they would prefer their climate to be warmer, cooler, or about the same, and reported that a straw poll of my undergrads leans in a pro-warmer direction. Now a new NBER paper strikingly... MORE
July 26, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Evidently, there is a company offering a solution to CO2. It is called Planktos. Our primary focus is to restore damaged habitats in the ocean and on land. Through iron-stimulated plankton blooms in the oceans and afforestation projects in Europe,... MORE
July 17, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
The U.S. Department of Energy reports, Acciona Energy announced on June 7th that Nevada Solar One, a 64-megawatt solar thermal power plant near Boulder City, Nevada, is now online. The new facility is the largest of its type to be... MORE
July 10, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
I emailed Scott Armstrong my questions about his climate change bet, and he graciously responded:The bet is about the size of the forecast errors, not about direction. There are better ways of designing a competition. I had to go for... MORE
July 9, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Armstrong has just offered Al Gore a $US20,000 ($23,000) bet that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change temperature forecasts are wrong.This passage intrigued me. What counts as "being wrong"? Here's what I learned at the bet's official website:Scott Armstrong of... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Michael Duffy writes, Professor Scott Armstrong is at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr Kesten Green is with the Business and Economic Forecasting Unit at Monash University. They're experts in forecasting techniques... Armstrong and Green looked at... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
A sharp post by David Friedman:One argument is that we are running out of hydrocarbons and should therefore reduce our use of hydrocarbons, reduce energy consumption and switch to alternative energy sources. The other argument is that we are, by... MORE
July 8, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
True or false? "OPEC has done more to reduce global warming than all the world's environmental protection agencies put together." Discuss.... MORE
July 3, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Some pretty reasonable remarks by Tyler about the future of Tyson's Corner provoked a remarkably angry set of comments. When I first moved to Virginia ten years ago, I lived across the street from Tyson's II, and Tyler lived in... MORE
July 2, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
"Recycling is the philosophy that everything is worth saving except your time" - I still don't know who coined the quip, but I repeat it every chance I get. If that's not enough for you, though, here's Mike Munger on... MORE
June 30, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
He writes, We can imagine that in the future, when we have mastered the art of genetically engineering plants, we may breed new crop plants that have leaves made of silicon, converting sunlight into chemical energy with ten times the... MORE
June 13, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Ross McKitrick writes climate models predict that, if greenhouse gases are driving climate change, there will be a unique fingerprint in the form of a strong warming trend in the tropical troposphere, the region of the atmosphere up to 15... MORE
May 2, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Robert Haddick writes, Unless China, India, and other rapidly expanding economic centers in the developing world fully participate in greenhouse gas reduction efforts, regulatory schemes in the west will simply displace economic activity from the "clean" developed world to the... MORE
May 1, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Arnold also writes: Pearce himself said, and I agree, that skepticism about climate models should increase one's concern about both tails. That is, the models may under-predict global warming. In fact, that is my number one concern with the issue.... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
First, there is Larry Summers. Those who still deny that human activity is warming the planet, or claim that “business as usual” can continue indefinitely without profoundly adverse consequences, are increasingly seen as the moral and intellectual equivalent of those... MORE
April 24, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
David A. Shaywitz reviews Nassim Taleb's views on randomness. The problem, insists Mr. Taleb, is that most of the time we are in the land of the power law and don't know it. Our strategies for managing risk, for instance--including... MORE
April 17, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Today, the high school where I teach had an "environmental awareness" seminar. I walked in during the middle, so I did not catch the woman's name. The kids said that she had worked with Al Gore, and that many of... MORE
April 1, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
A sign that the Pigou Club is gaining traction is that the Washington Post has an article called Tax on Carbon Emissions Gains Support that does not mention Greg Mankiw. The article does, however, quote some real, um, knowledge-challenged people... MORE
March 13, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Which do you think has higher priority? The Financial Times reports, A European summit agreed to toughen regulations against old-fashioned incandescent bulbs by 2009 as part of a bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But earlier in the week officials... MORE
March 7, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
A blogger writes If consuming less bad energy is a goal, then moving more citizens over to good energy is a viable part of that goal. To move more people over to good energy, there has to be more readily... MORE
March 6, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
In this essay, I put together some recent ideas. Subsidizing "good" energy in order to justify using "bad" energy is like eating salad in order to justify eating dessert. It is an exercise in self-deception. ...The most important, inconvenient truth... MORE
March 4, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
The Wall Street Journal writes, The emerging alliance of business and environmental special interests may well prove powerful enough to give us cap-and-trade in CO2. It would make Hollywood elites feel virtuous, and it would make money for some very... MORE
February 25, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
I've already defended blanket skepticism about supposedly impending disasters. Here's a neat essay by Max More defending a "Proactionary Principle" against the far more popular "Precautionary Principle." Intro: "We can call this “the” Proactionary Principle so long as we realize... MORE
February 22, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
Daylight savings time is going to be longer this year. When I heard this, I started laughing about the following stupid question: "Will it be good for plants?"... MORE
February 14, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Mark Thoma writes, Here's what I've noticed. Some of the same people who argue there's too much uncertainty about the climate 75 years in the future to justify drastic action now use the so-called crisis in Social Security funding 75... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
My latest essay: Weitzman implicitly shares my concern with climate models. Obviously, we have nothing to worry about if the models are too pessimistic. If it turns out that over the next decade global temperatures edge down, or rise more... MORE
February 13, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
I love Martin Weitzman's paper. From his conclusion: On the political side of the Stern Review, my most-charitable interpretation of its urgent tone is that the report is an essay in persuasion that is more about gut instincts regarding the... MORE
February 9, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Jonah Goldberg writes, Earth got about 0.7 degrees Celsius warmer in the 20th century while it increased its GDP by 1,800 percent, by one estimate. How much of that 0.7 degrees can be laid at the feet of that 1,800... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Shame on Reason for giving us this essay on "terror-free" oil. I usually give Citgo a pass because most of the company's profits wind up on the hands of the Venezuelan government, headed by the socialist, Castro-loving, anti-globalization, and virulently... MORE
January 31, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Mark Bahner writes, The U.S. government should set up a prize fund totaling $400 million, payable in 2031. The prize fund would be open to any U.S. university with accredited science or engineering programs. The fund would be awarded as... MORE
January 29, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Also in the Milken Institute Review, Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren write, A comprehensive study recently published by the nonpartisan International Institute for Sustainable Development estimates that federal and state subsidies for ethanol in 2006 were somewhere between $5.1... MORE
January 24, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
I thought that the most disagreeable part of the Bush State of the Union Address was on energy. If you want to reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent, then join the Pigou club and tax gasoline. If you assume that... MORE
January 17, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Robert M. Carter, et al write, peer review is both too inbred and insufficiently thorough to serve any audit purpose, which we believe is now essential for science studies that are to be used to drive trillion-dollar policies. The authors... MORE
January 9, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
'Jane Galt' writes, As I read it, the Stern Report basically assumes that there are low diminishing returns to income (it sets the elasticity of marginal utility of consumption, or η, to 1). It strikes me as odd to see... MORE
January 5, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Ron Bailey writes, 77 percent of the world’s known oil reserves are in the hands of state-owned oil companies. Such “companies” do not respond with alacrity to market signals and so are under-investing in new production technologies and even in... MORE
December 28, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
James Surowiecki writes, Unfortunately, the ethanol produced in the U.S. comes from a less-than-ideal source: corn. Corn ethanol’s “net energy balance”—the amount of energy it yields in proportion to how much energy goes into its production—is significantly lower than that... MORE
December 27, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
A major news story is that 2006 is likely to be the sixth warmest year on record. Lubos Motl says that it also is likely to be the coldest year since 2002. I'm not sure what the right unit of... MORE
December 26, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
He wrote, According to [William] Nordhaus, the assumptions used in the Stern Review imply that per capita yearly consumption in 2200 will be $94,000 as compared with $7,000 today. So, is it really ethical to transfer wealth from someone making... MORE
December 2, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
On the question of choosing a discount rate to determine the cost of global warming, Brad DeLong chimes in. A consumption-to-output ratio of 77.5% is far from absurd, and so Dasgupta's critique of Stern fails. His mistake is in failing... MORE
November 27, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Concerning the discount rate assumptions used in the Stern climate review, Partha Dasgupta writes, suppose, following the Review, we set delta [the rate of subjective time preference] equal to 0.1% per year and eta [the elasticity of marginal utility with... MORE
November 26, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Ron Bailey looks at an article by MIT chemist Daniel Nocera. Nocera suggests, assuming heroic conservation measures that would enable affluent American lifestyles, that "conservative estimates of energy use place our global energy need at 28-35 TW in 2050." This... MORE
November 6, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
A number of readers have sent in links to articles suggesting that climate engineering may be feasible. For example, T.M.L. Wigley writes, Future climate change may be reduced through mitigation (reductions in greenhouse gas emissions) or through geoengineering. Most geoengineering... MORE
November 2, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
I elaborate on the idea of using man-made climate change to fight climate change, whether man-made or not. Climate engineering, or what I call Operation Sunscreen, would mean trying to alter the heat absorption properties of the atmosphere. The goal... MORE
October 30, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
The latest analysis is known as the Stern report. From chapter one, on climate science: Climate models use the laws of nature to simulate the radiative balance and flows of energy and materials. These models are vastly different from those... MORE
October 27, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Paul Romer writes, Greg Mankiw correctly points out that the tax in Prop 87 is not a Pigovian tax--that is, a tax on oil for the purpose of reducing oil consumption to socially optimal levels. However, the revenues from Prop... MORE
October 24, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
John Baden writes, First, the energy content of ethanol is low when compared with gasoline or diesel. While diesel contains around 140,000 Btu per gallon, and gasoline 115,000 Btu, denatured ethanol contains only 78,000 Btu per gallon. We can’t cheat... MORE
October 20, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
He writes, We should raise the tax on gasoline. Not quickly, but substantially. I would like to see Congress increase the gas tax by $1 per gallon, phased in gradually by 10 cents per year over the next decade. He... MORE
October 17, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Lester B. Lave and W. Michael Griffin write, Brazil, together with some Caribbean nations, is exporting some 200 million gallons of ethanol to the United States annually. But the United States doesn’t make it easy. Brazil pays a 2.5% duty... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Bryan Caplan
California's latest crazy initiative helps James Hamilton get in touch with his inner Bastiat: The only reason I can imagine for a specific tax on California oil producers is the apparent belief by the proponents of the tax that these... MORE
October 3, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Don Boudreaux writes, But I do discard paper plates - for the same reason I recycle my china rather than discard it: it would be wasteful to do otherwise. After all, I could recycle paper plates. Careful washing would enable... MORE
September 20, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
N. Scafetta and B.J. West write, We find good correspondence between global temperature and solar induced temperature curves during the pre-industrial period such as the cooling periods occurring during the Maunder Minimum (1645–1715) and the Dalton Minimum (1795–1825). The sun... MORE
August 7, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Dan Lewis writes, Even if we [in Europe] succeed in making big cuts in carbon emissions, these would not include the pollution created by imports. This is the accounting flaw at the heart of the Kyoto treaty. Globalization means energy-intensive... MORE
August 6, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Richard S. Lindzen writes, Even if we attribute all warming over the past century to man made greenhouse gases (which we have no basis for doing), the observed warming is only about 1/3-1/6 of what models project. His point is... MORE
June 19, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
I am reading Frederick Crews' The Follies of the Wise, which collects essays he has written over the years attacking creationists, UFO believers, Freudians, and others. The common thread is his unrelenting empiricism. Greg Mankiw exposed my skepticism on Global... MORE
June 18, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Greg Mankiw asks everyone to join what he calls The Pigou Club, by which he means economists who favor carbon taxes or gasoline taxes. The idea is that instead of taxing stuff that we want more of--work, saving, risk-bearing--we should... MORE
June 14, 2006
Energy, Environment, Resources
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