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Ben Bernanke

Apr 08
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CAFE Standards and Auto Executive Dunces

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
Provide a chimpanzee with a computer loaded with MS Word and some sort of reward for pounding on the keyboard, and sooner or later it will produce a sentence, probably consisting of two words: subject, verb.  Provide a workbook with a one-trick-pony energy calculation to an unqualified user who applies it to a scenario it doesn’t represent whatsoever, and they may return the “right” answer, once in a while.  Allow 536 mostly clueless individuals[1] to craft laws and policies, and sooner or later by unintended consequences, they may achieve an objective.  And so it goes with automobile fuel economy standards,...
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Oct 29
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f(x) where x = Energy Cost

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Government One Comment
It has been a while since I’ve picked on an economist for his or her seemingly foolish statements and theories (other than the Ben Bernanke but I’ll get back to him later). Ed Dolan, university / government wonk, states in an interview that there is no lock-step relationship between economic growth and energy cost.  Rather, the world’s best performing economies have substantially increased their energy efficiency in terms of energy consumption per gross domestic product (GDP).  He states while the OECD countries (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) - about 35 mostly free countries – increased efficiency by an average...
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Sep 24
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Lessons from Panhandling

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
According to this article from Inc., the ten most important factors for employee satisfaction are: Purpose – to make a difference Goals for sense of purpose Responsibility Autonomy Flexibility Attention Opportunity for innovation Open mindedness Transparency A year before finishing my Bachelor’s degree, I joined the Nuclear Navy.  Nothing could be better.  I was getting paid a decent salary for my last year of school.  Getting up at 4:00 AM, marching, chanting, calisthenics, etc.: not required.  No uniforms.  And get this: I found that I had earned 30 days of vacation while attending my last year of school!  After graduation,...
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Apr 16
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3 and Out

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Government, Tax Stuff, Utility Stuff No Comments
The New Scientist published an article by an economist saying that now is the perfect time to implement “long-overdue environmental regulations requiring US power plants to reduce emissions of mercury, arsenic and other toxic metals”.  And the added cost will be a boon to the economy.  That’s what the textbooks say, so it must be right! As the article states in one place, yes, retrofitting power plants will create jobs somewhere, and the higher cost will be passed on to consumers.  Do they equally offset on a macroeconomic level?  I severely doubt it but no one can prove that. In...
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All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

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