All Research

All Research

How To Get Rid of a Tenured Professor
Article
Reason

How To Get Rid of a Tenured Professor

I was a tenured full professor at the University of Colorado Boulder for almost 24 years. At the end of 2024, I left. Officially, it was a voluntary departure. But I…

Welcome to the Era of Energy Realism
Article
The Honest Broker

Welcome to the Era of Energy Realism

Every year for the past 15 years, JP Morgan publishes an outstanding annual energy report by Michael Cembalest. Last week JP Morgan published its 2025 edition and today I share five important figures…

Thinking About Tanks
Article
The Honest Broker

Thinking About Tanks

Speaking yesterday on Fox News, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick indicated that official data for U.S. GDP would now separate out government spending from the rest of the nation’s overall economic…

Innovating Future Power Systems: From Vision to Action
Article
Knowledge Problem

Innovating Future Power Systems: From Vision to Action

The electricity sector is at an inflection point. The historical model of centralized, monopoly-provided electric service is under pressure from technological change, shifting market forces, evolving policy objectives, and changing…

Regional Transmission Organizations as Market Platforms IV
Article
Knowledge Problem

Regional Transmission Organizations as Market Platforms IV

Networks shape modern life. From roads to the internet to global supply chains, they enable movement, exchange, and value creation. But networks also suffer from congestion, a problem driven by…

Regional Transmission Organizations as Market Platforms IV
Article
Knowledge Problem

Regional Transmission Organizations as Market Platforms IV

Networks shape modern life. From roads to the internet to global supply chains, they enable movement, exchange, and value creation. But networks also suffer from congestion, a problem driven by…

Another Step Forward in NEPA Reform
Article
AEIdeas

Another Step Forward in NEPA Reform

America’s system of environmental reviews has been choking progress for a half-century. A key culprit: the National Environmental Policy Act, once a seemingly sensible safeguard that has metastasized into a…

Hits and Misses
Article
The Honest Broker

Hits and Misses

The term “scenario” was introduced by a group of researchers at the RAND Corporation in the 1960s. Herman Kahn explained its origin in 1979: “We deliberately chose the word [scenario] to…

Regional Transmission Organizations as Market Platforms III
Article
Knowledge Problem

Regional Transmission Organizations as Market Platforms III

As a follow-on to my previous two posts on regional transmission organizations (RTOs) in electricity, I was heading in a direction that relies on you, dear reader, having a foundational…

The Most Major Hurricanes Ever
Article
The Honest Broker

The Most Major Hurricanes Ever

Last year the world experienced the most major hurricane landfalls since records are available, tying only 2015, with 11 storms. Does last year indicate that we have reached a new…

Regional Transmission Organizations as Market Platforms II
Article
Knowledge Problem

Regional Transmission Organizations as Market Platforms II

Whether it’s rising electricity bills, reliability concerns, an impetus for decarbonization, or the related importance of grid modernization, power systems in the U.S. and around the world are struggling with…

Two Cautions on the Trump Energy/Environment Executive Orders
Article
AEIdeas

Two Cautions on the Trump Energy/Environment Executive Orders

The Trump “Day One” executive orders on energy and environment policies are worthy of applause because they implement a shift toward market forces in place of central planning as the dominant institution…

California’s Insurance Crisis
Article
The Honest Broker

California’s Insurance Crisis

Dave Jones, California’s insurance commissioner from 2011 to 2018, explained California’s growing insurance crisis in 2023: Due to the failure to substantially reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the U.S. and globally, we…

EPA Should Reject California’s Locomotive Electrification Regulation
Article
RealClearMarkets

EPA Should Reject California’s Locomotive Electrification Regulation

The California Air Resources Board last November requested from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a waiver under section 209(e) of the Clean Air Act for implementation of its “In-Use Locomotive Regulation,” an…

Regional Transmission Organizations as Market Platforms I
Article
Knowledge Problem

Regional Transmission Organizations as Market Platforms I

2025 is already shaping up to be a year of change for many reasons related to the economics and technology of energy. Between the uncertainty arising from a political change…