The Energy Markets Podcast
112 episodes - English - Latest episode: 24 days ago - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingConversations with energy and environmental policy experts exploring the best state and federal policies to effectuate the urgently needed transition to a clean-energy economy at least cost to consumers. Lot's of wonky FERC stuff. State-level utility regulation and politics. Economists. Lawyers. Engineers. Politicians. Government regulators. Advocates. And acronyms. Lots of acronyms. Topical discussions about energy market developments with a focus on regulatory policies that disincentivize the innovation necessary to advance environmental and climate change objectives at least cost to consumers and the economy. Hosted by Bryan Lee, an energy and environmental policy consultant with decades of Washington, D.C.-based experience as a journalist, government official and energy company executive. Lee and invited guests discuss the latest developments at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other federal agencies, Capitol Hill, as well as happenings at state-level regulatory commissions and legislatures.
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Episodes
S4E7: R Street Institute economist Michael Giberson speaks to price trends in electricity markets
April 04, 2024 22:00 - 41 minutes - 28.8 MBIn this episode we continue our consideration of what Bill Massey in our first episode this season called "the battle of the statistics" between monopoly and competition advocates. We talk with Michael Giberson, an economist and senior fellow for energy with the R Street Institute, who notes the importance of taking statistics into proper context when attempting to contrast between monopoly utility regulation and competitive markets – particularly the need to account for the impact of inflat...
S4E6: RESA's Rich Spilky speaks to the 'battle of the statistics' regarding the consumer benefits of retail energy competition
March 20, 2024 15:00 - 52 minutes - 35.9 MBSince the dawn of retail energy competition a quarter century ago, various factions pro and con have engaged in a "battle of the statistics" (as former FERC Commissioner Bill Massey termed it in Episode 1 of this season) regarding the benefits that consumers – particularly residential customers – obtain from competition in retail electricity service. Mostly, these statistical arguments have centered around price savings that residential consumers may or may not have obtained from having a co...
S4E5: The Center for LNG's Charlie Riedl on the Biden administration's 'pause' on export permits for liquefied natural gas
March 08, 2024 15:00 - 53 minutes - 36.8 MBThe Biden administration in January announced a pause in reviewing export permits for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in order to better understand the impacts that the United States' world-leading LNG exports will have on domestic natural gas prices, climate change, and environmental equity. Could the pause threaten the U.S.'s position as the world's top LNG supplier? Charlie Riedl, executive director of the Center for LNG, speaks to the the national security implications of the administratio...
S4E4: Former Montana utility regulator Travis Kavulla discusses the headwinds and the opportunities for competitive retail suppliers to bring value to energy consumers
February 26, 2024 17:00 - 57 minutes - 39.3 MBThe debate over the benefits of competition for energy consumers has persisted since the advent of retail competition for electricity and natural gas more than two decades ago. Consumers are stuck in a limbo between traditional monopoly regulation and competitive choice because the movement to deregulate energy pricing (much as most other formerly price-regulated industries were deregulated decades ago) has stalled in the wake of the catastrophic collapse of California's disastrously ill-des...
S4E3: NRDC's David Doniger on the ubiquity of emissions cap-and-trade programs, an alternative to command-and-control regulation, which seemingly has fallen out of favor when it comes to managing climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions
February 08, 2024 16:00 - 38 minutes - 26.3 MBOur discussion continues with David Doniger, Natural Resources Defense Council senior attorney, who notes that flexible market-based emissions cap-and-trade programs have been applied somewhat ubiquitously to address a range of environmental issues, from eliminating lead in gasoline, to combatting acid rain, to phasing out ozone-depleting chemicals – even to allocating catch limits for herring, an issue incidentally connected to cases now pending before the Supreme Court challenging the long...
S4E2: NRDC's David Doniger discusses the Chevron doctrine case pending before the Supreme Court, and addresses past and present efforts to regulate carbon emissions
January 31, 2024 11:00 - 46 minutes - 31.9 MBWho better to discuss the ramifications of the Supreme Court's apparent path toward striking down the long-standing legal precedent known as the Chevron doctrine than the lawyer who argued the original case 40 years ago? Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Attorney David Doniger is a lion of the environmental movement who has been instrumental in the environmental group's efforts to rein in air pollution from fossil fuels and emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals. He has been a fixtur...
S4E1: Former FERC regulator Bill Massey discusses the courts' expansive view of the Commission's statutory authority and pending cases before SCOTUS that may test whether that expansive view will 'have its wings clipped'
January 18, 2024 20:00 - 1 hour - 41.5 MBEnergy lawyer and law school professor William Massey, at 10 years the longest-serving commissioner ever at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, discusses the vast body of legal precedent finding FERC has expansive authority under the Federal Power Act and Natural Gas Act, and reviews pending cases before the Supreme Court that may test whether this expansive view of FERC's authority will continue under the court's new Major Questions Doctrine. "The courts have said FERC’s authority is...
S3E24: "Food is energy." So what is the energy-intensive fertilizer industry doing to decarbonize while still keeping the world fed?
December 28, 2023 15:00 - 1 hour - 44.9 MBThe world's burgeoning billions have been kept fed thanks to the "Green Revolution" of the 20th century, which featured new hybridized crops with enhanced yields. Often deemed a miracle of science, it was also made possible by energy-intensive industrial fertilizers. Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch were each awarded the Nobel Prize for their contributions to the widely used processes for synthesizing ammonia from nitrogen taken from ambient air and hydrogen derived from fossil fuels. These ammoni...
S3E24: 'Food is energy.' So what is the energy-intensive fertilizer industry doing to decarbonize while still keeping the world fed?
December 28, 2023 15:00 - 1 hour - 44.9 MBThe world's burgeoning billions have been kept fed thanks to the "Green Revolution" of the 20th century, which featured new hybridized crops with enhanced yields. Often deemed a miracle of science, it was also made possible by energy-intensive industrial fertilizers. Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch were each awarded the Nobel Prize for their contributions to the widely used processes for synthesizing ammonia from nitrogen taken from ambient air and hydrogen derived from fossil fuels. These ammoni...
S3E23: Commodities trading expert Matthew Hunter talks about the financial markets for managing – or hedging – energy price risk, and how they and consumers are impacted by extreme events such as California in 2000 and Texas in 2021
December 04, 2023 17:00 - 56 minutes - 39.1 MBMatthew Hunter was a power trader in the Western market in 2000, when California's poorly designed and managed electricity market imploded costing consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. After that, he spent much of his career at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. He gives us a deep dive into hedging – futures markets, derivatives and swaps – and how these complex price-risk mechanisms don't necessarily protect consumers in the end. A...
S3E22: State Senator Tom Davis discusses his pro-competitive legislative agenda for South Carolina electricity consumers
November 08, 2023 15:00 - 46 minutes - 31.9 MBState Senator Tom Davis of South Carolina is a rare breed in politics today. At a time when no other state is actively considering competitive reforms to their traditionally monopoly-regulated utility sectors, and many politicians in states already benefiting from competition in electricity are promoting anticompetitive measures, he is leading the push for his state's consumers and economy to benefit from greater customer choice and competition among electricity providers. The Republican l...
S3E21: WPTF's Scott Miller talks about market-based grid regionalization efforts in the West, and the ghosts of the 2000-2001 regional energy crisis that haunt those efforts
October 12, 2023 21:00 - 35 minutes - 24.6 MBMore than two decades ago when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sought to put large regional wholesale power markets in place nationally, Western states were a hotbed of opposition to the since-abandoned goal. But today there are two competing proposals for competitive day-ahead wholesale power markets as the region has come to recognize that market-based regionalization helps cost-effectively and reliably integrate increasing amounts of variable renewable energy resources. The Wes...
EMP S3E21: WPTF's Scott Miller talks about market-based grid regionalization efforts in the West, and the ghosts of the 2000-2001 regional energy crisis that haunt those efforts
October 12, 2023 21:00 - 35 minutes - 24.6 MBMore than two decades ago when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sought to put large regional wholesale power markets in place nationally, Western states were a hotbed of opposition to the since-abandoned goal. But today there are two competing proposals for competitive day-ahead wholesale power markets as the region has come to recognize that market-based regionalization helps cost-effectively and reliably integrate increasing amounts of variable renewable energy resources. The Wes...
EMP S3E20: Octopus Energy's Michael Lee speaks to his company's consumer-centric vision of "Retail 2.0" for energy supply
October 05, 2023 14:00 - 55 minutes - 38.4 MBUK-based Octopus Energy has seen extraordinary growth since launched in 2015 by fund-management firm Octopus Group. It's heavily invested in renewable energy in the UK and elsewhere, and it has retail energy supply operations in Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan and New Zealand, with its U.S. arm headquartered in Houston. As its name would suggest, Octopus has its tentacles everywhere all at once in competitive energy supply, it would seem. And that reach promises to extend even further with ...
S3E20: Octopus Energy's Michael Lee speaks to his company's consumer-centric vision of "Retail 2.0" for energy supply
October 05, 2023 14:00 - 55 minutes - 38.4 MBUK-based Octopus Energy has seen extraordinary growth since launched in 2015 by fund-management firm Octopus Group. It's heavily invested in renewable energy in the UK and elsewhere, and it has retail energy supply operations in Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan and New Zealand, with its U.S. arm headquartered in Houston. As its name would suggest, Octopus has its tentacles everywhere all at once in competitive energy supply, it would seem. And that reach promises to extend even further with ...
S3E20: Octopus Energy's Michael Lee speaks to his company's consumer-centric vision of 'Retail 2.0' for energy supply
October 05, 2023 14:00 - 55 minutes - 38.4 MBUK-based Octopus Energy has seen extraordinary growth since launched in 2015 by fund-management firm Octopus Group. It's heavily invested in renewable energy in the UK and elsewhere, and it has retail energy supply operations in Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan and New Zealand, with its U.S. arm headquartered in Houston. As its name would suggest, Octopus has its tentacles everywhere all at once in competitive energy supply, it would seem. And that reach promises to extend even further with ...
S3E19: The Energy Democracy Initiative's John Farrell speaks to how, in his view, electric utility monopolies 'fuel climate disasters and public corruption'
September 25, 2023 21:00 - 34 minutes - 23.7 MBElectric utility monopolies have captured headlines in recent years by sparking catastrophic wildfires and fomenting public corruption scandals in several states. "There are probably other things like this going on we just haven't found out about," remarks John Farrell, director of the Energy Democracy Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. We spoke with him about his recent article in the American Prospect, How private monopolies fuel climate disaster and public corruption. ...
EMP S3E19: The Energy Democracy Initiative's John Farrell speaks to how, in his view, electric utility monopolies 'fuel climate disasters and public corruption'
September 25, 2023 21:00 - 34 minutes - 23.7 MBElectric utility monopolies have captured headlines in recent years by sparking catastrophic wildfires and fomenting public corruption scandals in several states. "There are probably other things like this going on we just haven't found out about," remarks John Farrell, director of the Energy Democracy Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. We spoke with him about his recent article in the American Prospect, How private monopolies fuel climate disaster and public corruption. ...
S3E18: Special Initiative on Offshore Wind’s Kris Ohleth speaks to the strong headwinds facing offshore wind
September 10, 2023 19:00 - 23 minutes - 15.9 MBThe flood of financial headlines on the offshore wind industry have been quite bearish in recent months. The industry has been buffetted by strong post-COVID headwinds – dramatic inflationary pressures and supply chain problems – that have rendered several Atlantic coast projects uneconomic. After writing down its assets by $2.3 billion, Orsted's stock has been punished by the market as the company threatens to walk away from uneconomic projects unless their terms can be renegotiated to refl...
EMP S3E18: Special Initiative on Offshore Wind’s Kris Ohleth speaks to the strong headwinds facing offshore wind
September 10, 2023 19:00 - 23 minutes - 15.9 MBThe flood of financial headlines on the offshore wind industry have been quite bearish in recent months. The industry has been buffetted by strong post-COVID headwinds – dramatic inflationary pressures and supply chain problems – that have rendered several Atlantic coast projects uneconomic. After writing down its assets by $2.3 billion, Orsted's stock has been punished by the market as the company threatens to walk away from uneconomic projects unless their terms can be renegotiated to refl...
S3E17: EPSA's Todd Snitchler discusses EPA's new power plant rules in the context of ongoing reliability concerns stemming from the transition to a clean-energy power grid
August 30, 2023 09:00 - 43 minutes - 30.3 MBThe Environmental Protection Agency's new proposed rules to significantly crack down on carbon emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, as published, promises to aggravate growing power grid reliability concerns, EPSA president and CEO Todd Snitchler suggests. "I think we need to be thinking a little more holistically and not siloed in the rules in order for us to make sure that we can achieve the outcomes that policymakers want us to achieve, while still ensuring system reliability. ...
EMP S3E17: EPSA's Todd Snitchler discusses EPA's new power plant rules in the context of ongoing reliability concerns stemming from the transition to a clean-energy power grid
August 30, 2023 09:00 - 43 minutes - 30.3 MBThe Environmental Protection Agency's new proposed rules to significantly crack down on carbon emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, as published, promises to aggravate growing power grid reliability concerns, EPSA president and CEO Todd Snitchler suggests. "I think we need to be thinking a little more holistically and not siloed in the rules in order for us to make sure that we can achieve the outcomes that policymakers want us to achieve, while still ensuring system reliability. ...
S3E16: FERC Commissioner Mark Christie calls for reevaluation of competitive wholesale power markets after 25 years
August 20, 2023 15:00 - 1 hour - 42.2 MBCommissioner Mark Christie of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been a prominent advocate of the need to overhaul the competitive market design at the heart of the regional wholesale power markets that have evolved in the U.S. over the past 25 years ("It's time to reconsider single-clearing price mechanisms in U.S. energy markets", Energy Law Journal, May 2, 2023). The fossil fuel-fired "dispatchable" generation units that Christie sees as crucial to ensuring power grid reliabil...
EMP S3E16: FERC Commissioner Mark Christie calls for reevaluation of competitive wholesale power markets after 25 years
August 20, 2023 15:00 - 1 hour - 42.2 MBCommissioner Mark Christie of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been a prominent advocate of the need to overhaul the competitive market design at the heart of the regional wholesale power markets that have evolved in the U.S. over the past 25 years ("It's time to reconsider single-clearing price mechanisms in U.S. energy markets", Energy Law Journal, May 2, 2023). The fossil fuel-fired "dispatchable" generation units that Christie sees as crucial to ensuring power grid reliabil...
S3E15: Former Massachusetts regulator Paul Hibbard of the Analysis Group talks about his study of retail electricity competition that aims to inform the policy debate over ending retail choice for residential customers
July 27, 2023 14:00 - 1 hour - 45.2 MBMassachusetts is actively considering Gov. Maura Healey's longstanding demand to end competitive retail energy sales to residential customers. As part of this debate in Massachusetts and elsewhere, the Retail Energy Advancement League commissioned the Analysis Group's Paul Hibbard, a former Massachusetts utility regulator, to provide a comprehensive examination of retail energy choice. We talk with the report's author as well as Chris Ercoli, REAL's president and CEO. Support the show
S3E14: The Nuclear Energy Institute's Matt Crozat discusses new nuclear and SMRs as part of nuclear power's role in the clean-energy transition
July 13, 2023 14:00 - 45 minutes - 31.1 MBThere's something like a couple dozen proposals now for development of small modular reactors (SMRs), widely seen as the future of nuclear power as a participant in the clean-energy transition. Publicly traded NuScale* is at the vanguard of this trend. We spoke with the Nuclear Energy Institute's Matt Crozat about the prospects for SMRs and nuclear's role in the clean-energy transition at a time when we thought the first of Georgia Power's new Vogtle nuclear power units would have already be...
S3E13: Brattle Group consultants discuss their report for the South Carolina legislature on the benefits of adopting an organized regional wholesale power market in the Southeast
July 01, 2023 12:00 - 46 minutes - 32.2 MBBurned by an aborted nuclear power plant new build that saddled the state's consumers with hundreds of millions of dollars in needless costs for years to come, South Carolina's Act 187 established a legislative study committee to ponder whether the state's electricity consumers might not be better off with competitive reforms of the Palmetto State's 150-year-old monopoly regulatory regime. A centerpiece of the committee's considerations is a sweeping analysis of the competitive options the s...
EMP S3E12: Rob Gramlich, Frank Lacey and Doug Kantor discuss the obstacles posed by utility monopoly regulation for private-sector EV charging infrastructure development
June 16, 2023 18:00 - 1 hour - 44 MBGrid Strategy's Rob Gramlich and Electric Advisors Consulting's Frank Lacey detail the findings of a policy analysis paper they co-authored, Serving Customers Best: The Benefits of Competitive Electric Vehicle Charging Stations.* We also talk with Doug Kantor, general counsel for NACS, the international association for the convenience store industry, which sponsored the policy analysis. The analysis found EV charging customers will be served best if utilities are not permitted to extend the...
S3E12: Rob Gramlich, Frank Lacey and Doug Kantor discuss the obstacles posed by utility monopoly regulation for private-sector EV charging infrastructure development
June 16, 2023 18:00 - 1 hour - 44 MBGrid Strategy's Rob Gramlich and Electric Advisors Consulting's Frank Lacey detail the findings of a policy analysis paper they co-authored, Serving Customers Best: The Benefits of Competitive Electric Vehicle Charging Stations.* We also talk with Doug Kantor, general counsel for NACS, the international association for the convenience store industry, which sponsored the policy analysis. The analysis found EV charging customers will be served best if utilities are not permitted to extend the...
S3E11: R Street Institute's Josiah Neeley unpacks how the recently adjourned legislative session in Austin will impact Texas electricity consumers
June 08, 2023 13:00 - 29 minutes - 20.4 MBTexas lawmakers just concluded their 88th biennial legislative session in Austin, and energy issues were very much at the fore as a range of proposals that would have incentivized investment in gas-fired generation and disincentivized renewables were hotly contested. The R Street Institute's Josiah Neeley discusses the energy-related aspects of the session, which he said could have turned out much worse for consumers than it did. Many of the pro-gas, anti-renewable measures proposed in the...
EMP S3E10: ITC's Nathan Benedict defends monopoly transmission development and the incumbent's right of first refusal
May 29, 2023 01:00 - 22 minutes - 15.2 MBWe reached out to ITC Holdings Corp. for the transmission owner's view on monopoly transmission development and the incumbent transmission owner's right of first refusal, known by the acronym ROFR, to build new interregional transmission grid projects. The issue has come to the fore as the federal government plans to undertake a massive buildout of the U.S. transmission network, and separately as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has proposed, in an as-yet unfinalized rulemaking, to ...
EMP S3E9: Willett Kempton, a pioneer in vehicle-to-grid technology, talks about the state of play for V2G, which promises to become a critically important resource for power grid operators
May 14, 2023 16:00 - 51 minutes - 35.5 MBBack in the 1990s, the University of Delaware's Willett Kempton conducted early vehicle-to-grid (V2G) experiments with PJM, operator of the MidAtlantic region's wholesale power market, testing the feasibility of using electric vehicles to provide regulation services to the grid. In this episode, Kempton speaks to the progress that's been made in the intervening decades to set the stage for today's electricity market, where EVs are just beginning to have enough market penetration to provide e...
EMP S3E8: Former FERC Commissioner Rich Glick discusses transmission and ROFR, state-federal jurisdiction and reform of the 1935 Federal Power Act, and the need to reform regional electricity markets to reflect changing resources and climate.
May 04, 2023 14:00 - 46 minutes - 31.8 MBRich Glick, in his first wide-ranging interview since denied a second term at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, discusses the need for building out the transmission grid and for reforms to wholesale power markets to better accommodate the evolving resource mix toward more renewable, intermittent resources. Competitive wholesale power market reforms also are needed to address increasing climate-induced stresses on reliability, the former FERC ch...
S3E7: William Hogan of Harvard's Kennedy School defends the LMP-based market used in regional wholesale power markets as the best and only way to facilitate the transition to a clean-energy grid
April 09, 2023 14:00 - 51 minutes - 35.6 MBWilliam Hogan, the Raymond Plank Research Professor of Global Energy Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, along with his colleague Scott Harvey, are the architects of the market structure employed in every competitive regional wholesale power market in the United States, known as the bid-based, security constrained economic dispatch model with locational marginal prices. This market model has been the subject of criticisms from its inception some three decades ago, but in rece...
S3E6: Economist Tim Schittekatte discusses his working paper on the benefits of time-of-use and critical peak pricing in retail electricity rates
March 15, 2023 15:00 - 37 minutes - 26 MBMIT economist Tim Schittekatte (tsgee-teh-kah-tuh) details his recent working paper, Electricity Rate Design in a Decarbonizing Economy: An analysis of time-of-use and critical peak pricing. Two of his co-authors are lions of energy economics, MIT economists Paul Joskow and Richard Schmalensee. The paper finds that a combination of time-of-use (TOU) and critical peak pricing (CPP) at retail can approximate the price signals electricity consumers would otherwise get from the competitive whole...
EMP S3E5: Clean Virginia's Brennan Gilmore discusses recently passed legislation ending Dominion Virginia Power's decade-long reign as an unregulated monopoly
March 04, 2023 14:00 - 42 minutes - 29 MBMore than ten years ago, Dominion Energy convinced Virginia lawmakers to clip the wings of the state's utility regulator, the State Corporation Commission. After a decade in which Virginia Power overcollected on its rates as an unregulated monopoly, the Legislature in Richmond had finally had enough and passed legislation restoring the SCC's utility ratemaking authority. In this episode, Brennan Gilmore, executive director of the advocacy group Clean Virginia, discusses this lost decade wh...
EMP S3E4: Maryland PSC Chairman Jason Stanek discusses the 'maximum enforcement' campaign he's ordered to crack down on what he called 'fly-by-night' energy suppliers
February 26, 2023 23:00 - 28 minutes - 19.4 MBJason Stanek, the lame duck chairman of the Maryland Public Service Commission, is riding out the remainder of his term in office with a "maximum enforcement" campaign to crack down on retail suppliers "that engage in deceit, confusion, and trickery in order to close the deal." January saw the second-highest number of consumer complaints received, and February is shaping up to set a record for the month, he said, promising the PSC will use "expedited procedures to, if necessary, eject suppli...
EMP S3E3: Davante Lewis, newly elected to the Louisiana PSC, talks about his mission to ensure the clean-energy transition is a just transition
February 04, 2023 17:00 - 46 minutes - 31.8 MBDavante Lewis credits grassroots community organizing and coalition building for helping him defeat a long-time incumbent to garner a seat on the five-member Louisiana Public Service Commission. Lewis – who professes he's a regulator and "policy nerd" and not a politician – aspires to assuring the clean-energy transition is also a just transition. He wants to transform his Louisiana district's descriptor from "Cancer Alley" to "Answer Alley" by promoting jobs and jobs training to support rap...
S3E2: Chris Carmody of Carolinas Clean Energy Business Council speaks to the economic disadvantage states face with monopoly barriers to entry for low-cost clean energy
January 17, 2023 00:00 - 37 minutes - 25.8 MBChris Carmody, executive director at Carolinas Clean Energy Business Council, says energy-intensive electricity customers will leave or not relocate to the Carolinas because of the difficulties they face buying their energy needs from the resource mix they prefer. There's "no tolerance for anything that resembles competition. And that really is to the detriment of economic development in the Carolinas," he said. While North Carolina has a carbon-reduction plan in place, Carmody said it esse...
S3E2: Chris Carmody of Carolinas Clean Energy Business Association speaks to the economic disadvantage states face with monopoly barriers to entry for low-cost clean energy
January 17, 2023 00:00 - 37 minutes - 25.8 MBChris Carmody, executive director at Carolinas Clean Energy Business Association, says energy-intensive electricity customers will leave or not relocate to the Carolinas because of the difficulties they face buying their energy needs from the resource mix they prefer. There's "no tolerance for anything that resembles competition. And that really is to the detriment of economic development in the Carolinas," he said. While North Carolina has a carbon-reduction plan in place, Carmody said it ...
S3E1: R Street's Josiah Neeley talks about the debate in Texas on the future of the ERCOT power market.
January 10, 2023 01:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBJosiah Neeley, the Austin-based research fellow and Texas director with the libertarian-leaning R Street Institute, discusses a recent letter that the think tank and some 30 other interest groups sent to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm urging that DOE, when it is allocating funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill, to take into account areas of the country that have not yet adopted a regional transmission organization and organized competitive wholesale power ...
S3E1: R Street's Josiah Neeley talks about the debate in Texas on the future of the ERCOT power market
January 10, 2023 01:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBJosiah Neeley, the Austin-based research fellow and Texas director with the libertarian-leaning R Street Institute, discusses a recent letter that the think tank and some 30 other interest groups sent to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm urging that DOE, when it is allocating funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill, to take into account areas of the country that have not yet adopted a regional transmission organization and organized competitive wholesale power ...
S3E1, R Street's Josiah Neeley talks about the debate in Texas on the future of the ERCOT power market.
January 10, 2023 01:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBJosiah Neeley, the Austin-based research fellow and Texas director with the libertarian-leaning R Street Institute, discusses a recent letter that the think tank and some 30 other interest groups sent to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm urging that DOE, when it is allocating funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill, to take into account areas of the country that have not yet adopted a regional transmission organization and organized competitive wholesale power ...
S2E23: With a study finding an enhanced market structure in the West will save billions, California ISO's Mark Rothleder details the incremental approach to moving the region into a more organized market, and maybe one day an RTO.
December 15, 2022 03:00 - 38 minutes - 26.2 MBCalifornia ISO's Chief Operating Officer, Mark Rothleder, details a new study finding that an enhanced day-ahead market, or EDAM, encompassing all 38 balancing authorities in the West, would provide billions of dollars in economic savings for consumers. But EDAM is not a Regional Transmission Organization. Utilities would still control their grid systems. The construct lacks the independent grid oversight of an RTO. But Rothleder sees the enhanced market structure as the beginning of an incr...
EMP S2E22: the California Solar and Storage Association's Bernadette Del Chiaro discusses the CPUC's pending decision on net metering and her view that the utility-sought proposal threatens vital growth in solar-plus-storage adoption.
December 08, 2022 15:00 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MBThe California Solar and Stage Association's Bernadette Del Chiaro discusses the California Public Utilities Commission's pending decision on net metering and her view that granting utilities' request to ratchet back net metering compensation is a threat to the vibrant growth California has experienced recently in solar-plus-storage adoption. She describes the CPUC's pending proposal as part of a concerted, nationwide campaign to limit rooftop solar net metering, which the Edison Electric In...
EMP S2E22, the California Solar and Storage Association's Bernadette Del Chiaro discusses the CPUC's pending decision on net metering and her view that the utility-sought proposal threatens vital growth in solar-plus-storage adoption.
December 08, 2022 15:00 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MBThe California Solar and Stage Association's Bernadette Del Chiaro discusses the California Public Utilities Commission's pending decision on net metering and her view that granting utilities' request to ratchet back net metering compensation is a threat to the vibrant growth California has experienced recently in solar-plus-storage adoption. She describes the CPUC's pending proposal as part of a concerted, nationwide campaign to limit rooftop solar net metering, which the Edison Electric In...
EMP S2E21: Rep. Sean Casten "nerds out" on electricity regulation, FERC, permitting reform, subsidies, emissions trading, energy productivity, COP27 and climate change
November 25, 2022 21:00 - 35 minutes - 24.7 MBRep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., is undoubtedly the only member of Congress ever who has run an energy company with a business model built around energy efficiency. Here he talks about how being an advocate of pro-competitive reforms in the electric industry is "the absolute loneliest position in Washington." Support the show
EMP S2E21, Rep. Sean Casten "nerds out" on electricity regulation, FERC, permitting reform, subsidies, emissions trading, energy productivity, COP27 and climate change
November 25, 2022 21:00 - 35 minutes - 24.7 MBRep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., is undoubtedly the only member of Congress ever who has run an energy company with a business model built around energy efficiency. Here he talks about how being an advocate of pro-competitive reforms in the electric industry is "the absolute loneliest position in Washington."
EMP S2E20: USC academics Matthew Kahn and Bhaskar Krishnamachari discuss the potential for smart grids and dynamic pricing to address climate emissions and reduce energy demand.
November 17, 2022 18:00 - 33 minutes - 23 MBResearchers Matthew Kahn and Bhaskar Krishnamachari, respectively an economist and electrical engineer at the University of Southern California, discuss their recent commentary calling for greater dynamic pricing in the electric industry. By reducing peak electricity demand, more responsive demand can eliminate the need for new fossil-fuel power plants and help reduce climate-altering and other harmful emissions. They look to "experimentation" with opt-in, voluntary demand-response programs ...
EMP S2E20. USC academics Matthew Kahn and Bhaskar Krishnamachari discuss the potential for smart grids and dynamic pricing to address climate emissions and reduce energy demand.
November 17, 2022 18:00 - 33 minutes - 23 MBResearchers Matthew Kahn and Bhaskar Krishnamachari, respectively an economist and electrical engineer at the University of Southern California, discuss their recent commentary calling for greater dynamic pricing in the electric industry. By reducing peak electricity demand, more responsive demand can eliminate the need for new fossil-fuel power plants and help reduce climate-altering and other harmful emissions. They look to "experimentation" with opt-in, voluntary demand-response programs ...