“Totally forgotten in this transformation [to mandatory open access] was a simple removal of the regulatory covenant to allow a real free market and genuine entrepreneurial discovery process…. Instead, we were told the ISO/RTO model worked: the planners knew how to price for volume and for reliability with Texas as the national model.”
Classical liberal theory explains market coordination and governmental discoordination, even “planned chaos.” The same intellectual tradition notes the propensity of government intervention to expand from its own shortcomings. Electricity is no exception. The rise and fall of the Texas grid is a case study–just the opposite of what some claiming to be classical liberal thought (see yesterday’s post).
The history of electricity in the U.S. is supportive of an undesigned order, beginning with inventor Thomas Edison and his business protégé Samuel Insull in the 1880s.…
“The propensity of government intervention to have unintended consequences and expand from its own shortcomings has taken over a vital U.S. industry. It is time for fundamental free-market, classical-liberal reform with electricity.”
For some time, I have questioned the work of electricity specialist Lynne Kiesling in regard to classical liberalism, market process economics, and Public Choice theory. She dons the mantle of all three traditions; I believe her approach is the opposite.
There are hidden assumptions and views that she does not want to talk about: climate alarmism; forced energy transformation. (Why?) And down under, her premise is that a “market failure” exists with electricity that necessitates government intervention. And with this intervention, she has fallen into a central planning approach that begs for a classical liberal autopsy and policy reversal.…
“[Andrew] Dessler said he would not debate the science because it isn’t a ‘both sides’ issue. ‘I think you overestimate the ability to settle these issues in a debate,’ Dessler told [Joe] Rogan.” (here)
“[Steven Koonin]’s a climate flat earther…. He’s just a old white dude whose vast experience in the halls of power gives him a unique ability to point out the errors that other people make? Nope.” (here)
So why is angry Andrew Dessler, Professor of Atmospheric Science at Texas A&M University, going to debate “flat earther” Steven Koonin of New York University? As it now now stands, on Monday August 15, 2022, the two will square away on the resolution: Climate science compels us to make large and rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.…