A Free-Market Energy Blog

Electricity Planning Quagmire: Marginal Cost Pricing & Renewables

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 1, 2021

So even though renewables can provide a benefit in lowering the overall clearing price for energy, there will come a point – if we have not already reached it – where there will be so many wind and solar resources bidding into the RTO markets that marginal clearing prices no longer benefit customers … [by making] dispatchable-on-demand generation resources needed for system reliability unable to survive economically. (Bernard McNamee, below)

A recent article at RealClear Energy by former FERC commissioner Bernard McNamee, “Why Marginal Pricing in Wholesale Electric Markets May Need Reform” (June 20, 2021) recognizes a problem with regulated pricing that results in a very inconvenient truth: renewable energy has blown up the neoclassical planning model for electricity in the Texas ISO (Independent System Operator). And it is hurting reliable generation in the RTO (Regional Transmission Organization) regions as we speak.…

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Vietnam at the Energy Crossroads: Will it Choose the Best Way Forward?

By Vijay Jayaraj -- June 30, 2021

Ed. Note: Mr. Jayaraj (below) continues his series on the energy situations of various countries and regions far removed from the U.S. (China, India, Japan, the Far East generally, the Middle East, Africa, Nigeria, The common denominator is the bedrock of oil, natural gas, and coal for affordability and reliability, with wind and solar investment being an appendage by government policy to appease climate activists.

The power demand in the country grew by 10 percent each year during the last one decade. Coal played a central role…. For Vietnam to surge ahead and sustain the hard-earned growth of the past decade, it must unequivocally support the growth and expansion of the fossil fuel sector, especially coal. (below)

“Vietnam” evokes an infamous place in history as a war zone.…

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Politicized History, Bad History

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 29, 2021

“You’re not getting a tote bag, and our advocacy work might not seem to benefit you directly. But no other history organization does advocacy work on the scale and scope of the AHA [American Historical Association].”

There is little hidden agenda today. Academia, and the professions within it, are all-go for Left Progressivism to remake the world (“the great reset”) in an egalitarian, government-first way.

To whatever extent there was or is true scholarship–examining both sides of complicated issues, whether it is the 1609 Project or Global Warming–that is now fringe.

My Experience

I was fortunate at Rollins College, a liberal arts school in central Florida, back in the mid-1970s. My history professors were Progressive, but one in particular was fair and open-minded. I remember him calling on me to correct or supplement his discussion of the Great Depression and the New Deal, for example.…

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‘Ecocide’: The Climate Church Wants to Imprison Nonbelievers

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 28, 2021
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The Institute for Energy Research: Formation and Early History

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 24, 2021
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IHS-Texas: Forerunner to IER (for the record)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 23, 2021
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Population Bombed! (revisiting a modern classic)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 22, 2021
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Looters, Moochers, Parasites: ‘Green’ Energy (Remembering Ayn Rand)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 21, 2021
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Energy Books: Some Observations

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 17, 2021
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Renewables, renewables … a Texas-sized Truth Creeping In

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 16, 2021
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