Lynne Kiesling: All in with the ‘Virtual Power Plant’ (Biden/Harris policy vs. free markets)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 7, 2024

“The ‘virtual power plant’ is the end-state of electricity interventionism, where government-subsidized wind, solar, and batteries–and in-home regulated (rationed) electricity use, via ‘smart meters’–replace consumer choice and taxpayer neutrality in a free marketplace.”

Lynne Kiesling has long sold herself as a freedom-loving classical liberal. Except she is the opposite when it comes to her specialty, electricity markets. This social media post is illustrative.

The “virtual power plant” is the end-state of electricity interventionism, where government-subsidized wind, solar, and batteries–and in-home regulated (rationed) electricity-use, via “smart meters”–replace consumer choice and taxpayer neutrality in a free marketplace.

Tomorrow’s post, “Free Market Electricity,” will outline the worldview of the missing-in-action alternative to Kiesling’s politically correct statism.

Appendix A: Critical Posts on Kiesling and Electricity

Electricity Statism Conference: Kiesling Rides High (June 25, 2024)

The Great Texas Blackout of 2021: Triumph of the Unreliables (February 20, 2024)

Kiesling vs. Cato’s Fisher on Free Market Electricity: For the Record (February 8, 2024)

Kiesling: ISOs/RTOs Suffer from “The Knowledge Problem” (November 1, 2023

Horwitz vs. Kiesling on Climate (October 3, 2023)

Renewable Tax Credits: Kiesling Ducks Again (July 20, 2023)

Free Market Electricity: End the Blackout (Kiesling bobs and weaves) (July 11, 2023)

Will Lynne Kiesling Show More Cards? (electricity in crisis, time for debate!) (May 18, 2023)

Electricity Policy: An Exchange with Lynne Kiesling (more evasion, statism from a “classical liberal”) (May 11, 2023)

Are Electricity ISOs/RTOs Government Central Planning? (February 17, 2023)

“Electricity Restructuring: The Texas Story” (revisiting a book gone sour) (August 18, 2022)