MIT

Global Warming: The Gathering Storm

Russia resurrects the Kyoto Protocol and the prospect of either mandatory CO<sup>2</sup> emissions cuts for U.S. utilities, or the start of a global trade war.

Russia resurrects the Kyoto Protocol and the prospect of either mandatory CO2 emissions cuts for U.S. utilities, or the start of a global trade war.

In June 2001, the Bush administration withdrew an earlier campaign pledge to support the Kyoto Protocol, claiming that the treaty was fatally flawed in not requiring China and India to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and that the science underpinning the treaty was not yet definitive enough to justify the costs of compliance.1

Pricing Power in Whosesale Markets: A Risky Business

A Risky Business Utilities wrestle with how much to charge for their product.

A Risky Business Utilities wrestle with how much to charge for their product.

The trading model has many good points, including the imposition of market discipline upon both transfer prices and prices to external third parties. Trading also encourages the use of resources and capital at their market value and the cultivation of specialized skills within different business units. But applying the model, particularly to the risks of power pricing, continues to be a challenge.

Perspective

Two Cato analysts suggest a return to the past-vertical integration, but now with no state regulators.

Perspective

Two Cato analysts suggest a return to the past-vertical integration, but now with no state regulators.

The defeat of the energy bill in the Senate last year has thrown electricity restructuring back on its heels. There clearly is no consensus among politicians or academics regarding how this industry ought to be organized or how it might best be regulated. Finding our way out of this morass requires a reconsideration of how we got to this dismal point in our regulatory journey.

The Carbon Conundrum

Technology exists to sequester carbon-but will utilities ever buy in?


Technology exists to sequester carbon-but will utilities ever buy in?

The vision: A nation filled with new, coal-fired power plants that provide inexpensive, secure power for Americans, while emitting few pollutants and sequestering the carbon dioxide produced. In other words, a power plant that not only industry and environmentalists can agree on, but one that utilities can finance and operate profitably.

Technology Corridor

Virtual reality comes of age in the power industry.


Virtual reality comes of age in the power industry.

Technological breakthroughs in power generation, pollution control, waste management, renewable resource applications, and many similar areas are at the forefront of advances in developing, managing, and delivering public utility products. However, technology that is more often associated with computer games and Hollywood blockbusters is taking hold in the industry, and its impact may well be as great as any of the more well known technologies.

Technology Corridor

Virtual reality comes of age in the power industry.


Virtual reality comes of age in the power industry.

Technological breakthroughs in power generation, pollution control, waste management, renewable resource applications, and many similar areas are at the forefront of advances in developing, managing, and delivering public utility products. However, technology that is more often associated with computer games and Hollywood blockbusters is taking hold in the industry, and its impact may well be as great as any of the more well known technologies.

The Economists: On the Future of Energy Markets

Uncertainty clouds direction of FERC’s market engineering.

The failure of California markets, Enron, and the low-point of the merchant plant business cycle has left many executives pessimistic over the prospects that true competitive markets in energy will develop. Top economists discuss the industry’s outlook.

Let's Be Rational About Hydrogen as a Vehicular Fuel

A response to “Forgetting Someone, Mr. Secretary?” Frontlines, Feb 1, 2002.

Mr. Stavros seems to fall into the same trap as so many of the major car manufacturers in assuming the need for a prohibitively costly infrastructure to supply this hydrogen when one already exists that offers by far the cheapest and environmentally vastly superior option—the natural gas transmission and distribution system.