Electricity Statism Conference: Kiesling Rides High

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 25, 2024

“This conference is not about free market reform; it is about centrally planned wholesale markets for electricity, as well as open-ended subsidies for wind, solar, and batteries, all at the expense of thermal generation and free-market order.”

The title says it all: Integrating Science and Law & Economics to Inform Energy Policy in a Decarbonized Future.” And the conference is loaded with electricity statists and ‘clean’ energy activists, all experts (as in expert failure and scientism), with plans to tweak/expand government planning in a failed, failing government system. In political terms, it is Biden’s “all of government” all the way.

The premise of the two-day conference is flawed. “Science” in the title suggests the scientific (physical and social) debate behind Net Zero/forced energy transformation. “Law & Economics” is a discipline that certainly questions the vague idea of “decarbonization.”

This conference is not about free market reform; it is about centrally planned wholesale markets for electricity, as well as open-ended subsidies for wind, solar, and batteries, all at the expense of thermal generation and free-market order.

Assume, don’t debate, climate alarm. Ignore the positives of carbon dioxide (CO2) on plant life and global greening. Accept the status of dilute, intermittent, taxpayer-enabled industrial wind turbines and on-grid solar arrays. Do not question the need for continuing shots of government mandates and subsidies for “energy transformation,” the latest being battery storage.

Who is at the center of this conference, one that is devoid of basic free-market questioning of a politicized market? The answer is Lynne Kiesling, a pretend classical liberal/freedom advocate who really is a technocrat working in a government sandbox. The “queen of power markets” is a woman of system. (For more discussion of our differences, see here and the appendix below.)

The Kiesling problem just starts with her Statist program for electricity (“my synthetic theory of regulation and technological change“) premised on “the grid [as] a common pool resource in which it is literally—literally—impossible to define and enforce property rights.” What?

Beyond a peculiar flawed theory of market failure (inapplicability?), Kiesling has repeatedly engaged in obfuscation against her critics who ask hard questions only to get ignored or, at best, receive evasive and condescending (“I’m-too-busy”) replies. On top of this, she engages in a charm offensive with crony rewards to her allies and defenders.

Unchecked ego will do this. Be original (albeit incorrect) to gain power and prestige via political correctness (sound familiar?). Erect a solid wall without direct debate/concessions to prevent leakage and spiraling deconstruction. And keep going down the interventionist path (an intellectual version of the Mises Interventionist Thesis) to the virtual power plant.

But here we are. Texas was her model for good electricity regulation–until it was not, tragically so. Texas has the most “green” electricity and the most “competition”. But it is wounded and in a spiral of more government intervention to address the problem of prior.

So why not present a real free market alternative, even if in one session of the conference? No, it is “all-of-government” electricity policy, even as practical problems mount.

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Here is the conference pitch, to be held today and tomorrow:

This Symposium, presented by the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy and the Institute for Regulatory Law and Economics at the Northwestern Center on Law, Business, and Economics, will provide an opportunity to convene scholars, policy practitioners, and members of industry to explore the science and policy of energy technologies and energy system integration in a decarbonizing electric system. There will be ample collaborative discussion opportunities for all attendees during the active breaks and small group discussion break-outs each day.

The Symposium will feature a virtual Keynote Address by U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (6th District of Illinois) and an in-person Keynote Discussion with Pat Wood, III (CEO, Hunt Energy Network; Former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Former Chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas)….

Symposium Program

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Tuesday, June 25, 2024
12:15-12:30 Welcome and Opening Remarks
Lynne Kiesling, Director, Institute for Regulatory Law &
Economics; Senior Research Affiliate, Northwestern Center on
Law, Business, and Economics
Hari Osofsky, Dean and Myra and James Bradwell Professor of
Law; Professor of Environmental Law and Culture (Courtesy),
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

12:30-2:00 Panel: New Technology Breakthroughs: Their Physical and Economic Implications
Moderator: Ted Thomas, Founder, Energize Strategies; Former
Chairman of the Arkansas Public Service Commission
Panelists: Holly Benz, Clinical Associate Professor & Director, Master
of Science in Energy & Sustainability (MSES), Northwestern
University
Meghan Busse, Associate Professor of Strategy, Kellogg
School of Management, Northwestern University
Jana Gerber, President, Microgrid North America,
Schneider Electric
Jeff Lopez, Assistant Professor of Chemical & Biological
Engineering, Northwestern University

3:15-4:15 IRLE 20th Anniversary Panel: Regulatory Decision-Making in a Changing Environment
Moderator: Pat O’Connell, Commissioner, New Mexico Public Service Commission
Rim Baltaduonis, Scientist. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University; Associate Professor of Economics, Gettysburg College
Lynne Kiesling, Director, Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics; Senior Research Affiliate, Northwestern Center on Law, Business, and Economics
Josh Macey, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Carrie Zalewski, Vice President, Transmission and Markets, American Clean Power Association

4:30-5:00 Keynote Address: U.S. Congressman Sean Casten, 6th District of Illinois (virtual)

6:45 Dinner Keynote Conversation
Pat Wood, III, CEO, Hunt Energy Network; Former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Former Chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas
Lynne Kiesling, Director, Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics; Senior Research Affiliate, Northwestern Center on Law, Business, and Economics

Wednesday, June 26, 2024
8:30-9:45 Science, Economics, and Policy Lenses on Transmission Investment
Moderator: Ann McCabe, Commissioner, Illinois Commerce Commission
Panelists: Jacob Mays, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University
Hilary Pearson, VP Policy & External Affairs, LineVision
Jim Rossi, Judge D.L. Lansden Chair in Law, Vanderbilt University Law School
Shashank Sane, EVP Transmission, Invenergy

10:00-10:45 Energy System Resilience Issues Short Presentations (10 minutes each)

• Winter Reliability
  o Timothy Fitzgerald, Associate Professor, Rawls College of Business, Texas Tech University
• Energy and AI
  o Kyri Baker, Assistant Professor and Lewis-Worcester Faculty Fellow, Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder
• Energy-Water Nexus
  o David Rankin, Executive Director, Great Lakes Protection Fund
• Grid Decarbonization/Complex System Dynamics
  o Ermin Wei, Associate Professor, Computer and Electrical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University
  10:45-11:15 Small Group Breakout Discussion of Resilience
  1:15-11:45 Report Out/Discussion from Small Groups
  11:45-12:00 Closing Summary

Appendix: Kiesling Issues

In many posts here at MasterResource, I have documented Kiesling’s faux classical liberalism in theory, application, and scholarship. They include:

• Purposeful obfuscation, evasion, and arrogance toward her free-market critics.
• Refusal to consider the alternative viewpoint of free-market economists before her on electricity policy reform.
• Controversial interpretation of Hayek, Coase, etc. for her “synthetic theory of regulation and technological change“.
• Support for violating basic private property rights of electricity asset owners (mandatory open access).
• Support of a centrally planned wholesale electricity market (ISOs/RTOs), from which contrived competition emerges at retail.
• Look-the-other-way treatment of climate activism (climate alarmism and forced energy transformation).
• Embrace of the next phase of the government takeover of electricity: the “virtual power plant” via wind, solar, batteries, and smart meters in the home or business. [1]

[1] Kiesling endorses Doug Lewin, a paid voice for forced energy transformation in the Texas power market.