Measuring the Economic Costs of the PG&E Outages
Some simple spreadsheet math suggests the outage cost about 100,000 MWh. What does that mean in $$? There’s been a lot of discussion about the potential economic losses due to … Continue Reading Measuring the Economic Costs of the PG&E Outages
Northern California Goes Dark
Government needs to be more hands-on when it comes to keeping the lights on and shutting them off. Last week more than 700,000 homes and businesses, customers of Pacific Gas … Continue Reading Northern California Goes Dark
Some Suggestions for Getting Through a Power Shutoff
It will still be a headache, but doing a few simple things now can help. It looks like PG&E is going to shut off power in large parts of the … Continue Reading Some Suggestions for Getting Through a Power Shutoff
The Little Energy Market That Could
Regional market coordination delivers a win for climate change mitigation. There’s an important experiment underway in the Western United States as we inject more and more renewable energy into the … Continue Reading The Little Energy Market That Could
What Can Carbon Pricing Do?
It won’t reduce energy use much, but it can fundamentally alter where that energy comes from. A decade ago, there seemed to be a Kumbaya trend in climate policy. Politicians … Continue Reading What Can Carbon Pricing Do?
Waving Goodbye to the California Waiver?
The latest twist in the Trump fuel economy rollback. The year 1969 was highly notable—Apollo 11 landed on the moon, free love blossomed at Woodstock, and Richard Milhous Nixon was … Continue Reading Waving Goodbye to the California Waiver?
Limitations of Standards
U.S. energy-efficiency requirements for air conditioners illustrate the inherent limitations of standards. This was a hot summer. July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded globally. Even in temperate Oakland, … Continue Reading Limitations of Standards
