November 20, 2024
President Trump Should Abandon Biden’s Misguided War on Big Business
As President Trump takes office for the second time, a pressing question will be how to handle the Biden administration’s legacy of targeting large businesses. In 2021, President Biden issued an executive order on competition, launching an all-of-government effort to reverse, or at least stay, a century-long trend: the rising share of national output produced by large firms….
November 19, 2024
In Support of Science Policy: My Long-Read Q&A with Tony Mills
The US government has acted as major contributor to science research since the mid-20th century, both in terms of broad basic research and targeted projects. As industrial policy has gained traction, especially during the Biden Administration, the distinction between industrial and science policy has become increasingly obscure. Hybrid policies like the CHIPS and Science Act have spurred…
November 19, 2024
Energy Realism and Climate Pragmatism at the Department of Energy
He’s a climate denier! That is the standard reaction of many in the climate lobby when encountering views on climate and energy deviating from the monomaniacal view that climate is the world’s single-most important issue. Reactions from climate advocates to the nomination of Chris Wright,1 CEO of Liberty Energy, to serve in Donald Trump’s cabinet as Secretary…
November 18, 2024
The Power of Pivots: How Smart Companies Change the Game
Businesses and startups alike have long served to drive American ingenuity and growth. Within the United States alone, over 75,000 successful startups have broken into the marketplace, leading the US to dominate the marketplace. While there are many tactics that new startups can utilize to thrive in a competitive industry, burdensome regulatory practices are stifling…
November 15, 2024
Should State Laws Determine National Energy and Climate Policies?
Opponents of fossil fuels claim to oppose pollution, but they are all too happy to pollute our legal and constitutional institutions in pursuit of their climate-policy agenda. The latest manifestation of this trend is a litigation campaign against fossil-energy producers in state courts under state laws, alleging that the energy producers “knew” decades ago that…
November 13, 2024
Global Existential Risks
In 2022, on a bipartisan basis, the U.S. Congress passed the Global Catastrophic Risk Management Act of 2022 requiring the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate an expert assessment of global catastrophic and existential risks. The Department of Homeland Security published the first Global Catastrophic Risk Assessment two weeks ago, and reached some important — and one surprising —…
November 12, 2024
A Memo for Trump’s Energy Czar
Last week, the Financial Times reported that President-elect Donald Trump is considering appointing an “energy czar,” described as: The new energy tsar role and its powers are not yet finalised, but people familiar with the plans said it would co-ordinate Trump’s deregulatory agenda across a patchwork of agencies including the Department of Energy, Department of Interior, Federal Energy Regulatory…
November 11, 2024
Between Rules and Reality: The Complex Challenge of EU Data Compliance
The European Union presents businesses with a complex challenge: They must comply with three major regulatory frameworks that sometimes have conflicting requirements. These frameworks are the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), European Union Artificial Intelligence or EU AI Act, and Digital Markets Act (DMA). While each regulation serves a purpose, their overlapping and occasionally conflicting…
November 7, 2024
History of Technology: Cheaper, Cleaner, Easier
Every fall since 2020 I have been teaching energy economics in Northwestern University’s Master of Science in Energy and Sustainability (MSES) program. I team teach with my friend Mark Witte, and my part of the course is backloaded—natural monopoly theory and regulation in theory and in history, new generation technology invention and adoption, wholesale power markets, digitalization…
November 6, 2024
Determinants of Industry Concentration and Dispersion
Abstract Given the political and public interest in rising industry concentration in developed economies, researchers have been working on uncovering underlying mechanisms and implications. Various causes of concentration have been proposed, although rarely tested in a comprehensive model. We study five distinct phenomena and their association with industry concentration: 1) Industry regulation, 2) mergers, 3)…