9 item(s) were returned.
Executive Director
Energy Choice Coalition
The rapid evolution of the electricity sector in the United States can offer numerous benefits to consumers while also addressing society’s environmental concerns. The rise of independent energy suppliers and the advancement of information technology are transforming the way we generate and manage our electricity use, allowing consumers to access more affordable, diverse, efficient, and cleaner sources of energy. More than a dozen states have restructured their electricity markets to some degree in order to give consumers, large and small, a greater say in the type of energy they use every day to power their homes and offices. Proper policy… [more]
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Energy Project Campaign Manager, Policy Analyst
Texas Public Policy Foundation
The Production Tax Credit (PTC), a federal renewable energy subsidy, is a $24-per-megawatt-hour credit based on energy production rather than demand. That means those who produce renewable energy can receive the credit regardless of whether or not that electricity is actually needed. The incentive is so immense that at peak hours of output wind producers can actually pay retail electric providers, the companies that deliver the energy to homes and businesses, to take their product. This “negative pricing” scheme caused by the PTC and other subsidies is having serious consequences.The instability it causes can push out the energy producers that keep… [more]
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Oil prices have declined sharply over the last six months, with the U.S. benchmark closing below $50/barrel on Jan. 6th, for the first time since 2009. A number of factors have contributed to this fall in prices, including an increase in U.S. tight oil production and decreased global demand. Beyond the immediate financial benefits of lower fuel prices for U.S. consumers, the falling price of oil raises several policy questions. Impacts on financial markets and geopolitical tensions that could be exacerbated if the low price persists are only a few of the potential issues U.S. policymakers may find themselves dealing… [more]
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Assistant Professor, Energy and Resources Group
University of California, Berkeley
Wind and solar capacity have grown significantly in the last decade, and many believe that significant reductions in carbon emissions require continued expansion of their capacity (see for example recent papers by Jim Williams et al and Jimmy Nelson et al[1]). With the declining cost of wind and solar, the economic case for increasing production from sources whose fuel is free is getting better. But getting these energy sources on to the grid is not without its engineering and economic challenges. Wind and solar production is both variable and uncertain, and grid system operators need to make sure they have… [more]
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Director of International Public Policy and Advocacy
Global Innovation Policy Center, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
The United States is set to become the world’s number one producer of oil and gas combined. But since the oil crises of the 1970s, U.S. energy policy has been based, either implicitly or explicitly, on the assumption of scarcity of U.S. resources. This has resulted in strong support for open and transparent global energy markets, which are expected to reduce volatile (and high) prices for U.S. customers and enable U.S. companies to access foreign energy supplies. What policy makers now have to reckon with is what the re-discovery of a bounty of domestic supplies (of oil and gas) means for U.S. energy policy,… [more]
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A battle is heating up in California regarding the State’s net metering policy as the California Public Utilities Commission is reviewing the policy’s costs and benefits. Net metering is an incentive that allows consumers who produce their own electricity, from rooftop solar panels for example, to sell excess back to the grid (often) at full retail price. Opponents of net metering contend that the volumetric retail rate includes fixed costs that are essential to the long-term stability of our utility infrastructure. They claim that net metering customers get the benefit of using the grid, but pay less to do so… [more]
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The U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued their final definitions of financial products regulated under the Dodd-Frank Act. The rule maintains that forward contracts, which cover delivery of physical goods and, according to Platts, currently constitute most energy market trades are not swaps, which are purely financial exchanges. Examples of forward contracts in energy markets include environmental commodities, peak supply contracts, tolling agreements and many natural gas supply contracts. The ruling is significant because it keeps much of energy market outside of the jurisdiction of the CFTC, which is expanded by the Dodd-Frank Act. The ruling has been been called… [more]
View InsightIn a response to a New York Times ‘Room for Debate’ forum on energy efficiency, Cato Institute scholar Peter Van Doren argues that energy efficiency standards are problematic, and that the most effective way to reduce fossil fuel use is to tax fossil fuels to increase their price. Van Doren writes “if fossil fuel combustion produces byproducts that cause negative health effects on third parties as well as changes in the temperature of the atmosphere, the obvious lesson from economics is to increase fossil fuel prices enough through taxation to account for these effects. Then firms and consumers will react… [more]
View Insight[Note: The statements below are intended solely to stimulate discussion among the Expert community, and do not represent the position of OurEnergyPolicy.org. Text in italics indicates clarification or expansion.] The current high price of oil (and related products) contains an element of speculation and manipulation. It is difficult to measure the exact amount. The price of other commodities such as food, iron and precious metals contains an even higher component of speculation and manipulation. Many of these markets are easy to manipulate with a small amount of money. There is no better example than the 30% daily jump in… [more]
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