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May 29, 2025
Twenty‑Five Years of Lessons on Electricity Competition in the United States
Why the Electricity Competition Debate Just Flipped—Again In 1998 California’s Power Exchange wholesale power market went live, symbolizing the then-new impetus for efficiency through electricity markets. The promise then was disarmingly simple: generation prices that reflected actual costs, customer choice, and an information revolution that would make your toaster as smart as your telephone. California, Pennsylvania, New…
May 27, 2025
Taking Institutional Neutrality Seriously on Campus
In 2024, Academic Freedom Alliance, Heterodox Academy, and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression called for colleges and universities to formally adopt institutional neutrality, defined as: “When a contested social issue arises that does not directly concern the academic mission of our college or university, institutional leadership will not issue a position statement on that issue. On…
May 14, 2025
The Future is Already Here Somewhere
One of the challenges, even for experts, in making sense of climate projections is that the scenarios underlying the projections are so complex as to be impenetrable without a lot of effort and expertise. Opaque assumptions make interpreting climate projections fraught with challenges and consequently, they are easily misinterpreted and misused. Today, I try to…
May 1, 2025
The Iberian Blackout
I’ve spent some time this week looking into the massive blackout that struck Spain and Portugal a few days ago, and today I share some of what I’ve learned. I start with a short primer on grid operations and follow that with some initial thoughts on the significance of the Iberian blackout. The Financial Times explains what…
April 28, 2025
Why the AI Revolution Will Require Massive Energy Resources
The rapid rise of generative AI has triggered a sharp escalation in data center electricity consumption, with profound implications for national energy use, system planning, and climate goals. Data centers have long been critical infrastructure for digital services, but their energy demand is now accelerating due to the emergence of compute-intensive AI workloads. Data center…
April 21, 2025
The Nuclear Race to Power the AI Economy
America’s nuclear paradox: Yesterday’s reactors are being resurrected to power the future. For example: At Palisades, Michigan, engineers rush to repair steam generators before an October 2025 restart, while at Three Mile Island—where a 1979 meltdown once buried the country’s postwar nuclear ambitions—Microsoft has committed billions for carbon-free electricity to feed its voracious artificial-intelligence operations….
April 17, 2025
The Rigidity Cycle and the Pacing Problem
I was listening to Tyler Cowen’s Conversations With Tyler podcast with Jennifer Pahlka, rich and full of detail relevant to my previous post on the pacing problem. In addition to recommending this good conversation, I echo Tyler’s recommendation of Jen’s book Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better….
April 4, 2025
A Policy Professor Grades Trump’s Trade Policies
For this first edition of THB Subscriber Questions (THBSQ#1) I am going to address one question asked by many readers. Anders Valland asks: Professor, now you know where it starts. What are your reflections on the new tariff regime? I’ll start with a disclaimer and some throat clearing — I do not research or publish in…
April 3, 2025
The Pacing Problem in Electricity
The electricity industry is undergoing an unprecedented transformation characterized by smaller-scale, decentralized, and digital technologies. But transitions are rarely easy. Significant challenges arise as the rapid pace of technological innovation exceeds the slower-moving evolution of regulatory institutions, creating what is known as the “pacing problem”. California, with its aggressive renewable energy policies and ambitious decarbonization…
March 31, 2025
Economics and Politics of Tariffs
In recent years, when teaching my senior policy capstone course I would often pivot the course on short notice to discuss current events, updating the readings on the syllabus, and often inviting guest lectures from relevant experts. Among such pivots were Covid-19, Russia-Ukraine, the U.S. elections, October 7th, and more. Part of my motivation of…