China has Seen the Future

And it's coal, according to George Will's latest column.  Don't tell Tom Friedman.

Post-Partisan Power

Post-Partisan Power (love the alliteration) is a the joint work put out by Steven F. Hayward, American Enterprise Institute; Mark Muro, Brookings Institution; Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, Breakthrough Institute back in October.  This unlikely group of collaborators is trying to bridge the left-right divide, and get past the hang up on carbon to develop a useful energy policy.   As I mentioned before, I don't aggree with all of this work, but I appreciate the effort.

Redesigning State Government

"Redesigning government" is something, like the weather, that everyone talks about, but no one does anything about.  Usually, the phrase is just code for (on the one side) spending a lot more money on the thing that is not effective or (on the other side) cutting spending on the thing that is not effective.  No one tries to do anything about the underlying effectiveness.

One of my managers (John Harvanko, giving him full credit) has come up with a novel idea.  The State of Minnesota Superstore.  He suggests the Mall of America as a site.  The Superstore is a place that any citizen could get help with anything that state government does:  drivers license, fishing license, permits, tax trouble, etc.  It would both help the consumer and get each state agency out of its silo (cylinder of excellence).  I know most voters think of state government as this monolithic entity, but the reality is that government is composed of dozens of separate fiefdoms (agencies) that have shockingly little contact with one another.

Arthur Brooks and "The Battle" Against Big Government

Arthur Brooks, head the the American Enterprise Institute recently wrote a very interesting (to me) book The Battle:  How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future.

"The Objectivist" column in Forbes reviews the book this week.  I gather that they are not the fans of the book that I am.

(Via Instapundit)

Spain Cuts "Feed in Tariff" Rate

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reports that Spain has further cut its"feed in tariff" rate for solar power.  Like my crusade against "revenue decoupling", "feed in tariff" is another popular but catastrophically bad ideas in the world of energy utilities.  Simply put a "feed in tariff" is an above market price paid to a solar (or wind) power producer, financed by utility ratepayers (or taxpayers).  As any first-year economics student will tell you, if you promise infinite profits to all comers, lots of people will take up your offer.

Yes, the feed in tariff will do wonders to promote renewable energy (hence its popularity), but the open ended nature of the bargain means that whoever pays the costs (ratepayers, taxpayers, utility-company shareholders) will quickly be bankrupted once the land rush to cash in on these high prices really gets going.  In Spain's case, the subsidy paid 10 times the market price (for 25 years!).  Spain had 6 times more than the amount of solar power sign up than they expected.

Like Germany, Spain has been forced to cut back on solar subsidies because of the impact on ratepayers.  But Spain's overall economy is in much worse shape and the subsidies for feed in tariff are threatening to push the country into bailout territory or, at lease, worsen the situation should a bailout be needed.

Toward an Aspirational Conservatism

My latest thought project is working to define what I'm calling (for lack of a better label) "Aspirational Conservatism".  I've been interested in Conservative PM David Cameron's "Big Society" project in the UK.  To me the term "Big Society" sits too close to "Big Government", "Big Brother", and "The Great Society" of LBJ to be useful in our context.  But I like the idea of decentralizing central government, moving decision-making closer to those people being impacted by that decision.

The "Aspirational" part is an attempt to put my arms around the need to encourage those who are trying to build businesses, build families, take part in the promise of America's upward mobility.  A philosophy that speaks to the middle- and working class' (and immigrants') aspirations to do better each generation.

Stay tuned.....

Obligatory Walter Russell Mead Link

Walter Russell Mead continue the discussion in his latest blog post.  Professor Mead proposes the completely radical notion that we should ask the people what they want.

Wendell Cox on (Not So) Smart Growth

On Joel Kotkin's New Geography website, Wendell Cox casts a critical eye on Smart Growth and the folks behind the Moving Cooler report.  Naturally, Wendell finds much not to like with the unintended consequences that flow from the best of intentions.  Sadly, Minnesota scrapes into the top 10 in the Smart Growth ranking of states.

Joel Kotkin in Fargo

The Fargo-Moorhead Chamber of Commerce will host Joel Kotkin next month at their annual Regional Economic Outlook Forum.  The event will be held Wednesday, January 19, 2011, at the Fargodome, at 7:30 a.m.  I encourage all who can attend.  Joel is great in person and well worth the early start.

The Ruins of Detroit

Readers of this blog will come to learn of my hope to save the otherwise hopeless city of Detroit, where I lived part-time, briefly, about 10 years ago.  The Ruins of Detroit is a haunting photo essay by two French photographers and I recommend that you take a look.  In our modern age, we believe, at our peril, that ruins are something that only happen to ancient civilizations.

The autumn issue of City Journal has a great essay about two crusading mayors, Cory Booker and Dave Bing, fighting to save two cities, Newark and Detroit, that may not be salvageable.  Godspeed, your honors.

Time to Short Treasuries? Maybe.

Eric Falkenstein seems to think that we may be close to the unthinkable regarding U.S. Treasury securities.  But his is not sold on the idea of more Direct Democracy.

(Via Instapundit).

Lionel Trilling Quote

“Some paradox of our nature leads us, when once we have made our fellow men the objects of our enlightened interest, to go on to make them objects of our pity, then of our wisdom, ultimately of our coercion.”

(Via National Review Online by way of Michael Knox Beran)

Peak Oil? Not Quite Yet

The Globe and Mail reports that October 2010 saw increased oil production in the United States compared to 2008 and 2009, surprising, given all the talk of drilling moratoria and "peak oil."  While we're well below the levels seen back in 1970, it's an amazing achievement nonetheless.  In natural gas, the United States recently passed Russia to become the largest producer in the world.  Perhaps there is some life in fossil fuels after all.


(Via National Center for Policy Analysis)

"Localism" Bill in UK to Return Power to the People

In a hopeful sign from across the pond, The Daily Telegraph reports on David Cameron's efforts to return power to the people with his "Localism Bill", just introduced into the UK Parliament.  Cameron hopes to be in the radical position of leaving office as Prime Minister with less power in the hands of the central government than when he entered office.

Elsewhere on the Telegraph's pages, Daniel Hannan adds his two cheers.


(via Instapundit)

Hydraulic Fracking and the Natural Gas Revolution

In a useful public service Popular Mechanics has a feature discussing "hydraulic fracturing" and its role in the recent North American natural gas revolution.  This drilling technique has made natural gas the little fossil fuel that could, allowing for a boom in North American production and an actual increase in reserves.  This boom has also complicated the ability of alternative energy (wind, solar) to compete in today's energy markets.  Well worth reading this quick primer on a technical, but important topic.

(Via Instapundit)

Joel Kotkin's Advice to Both Political Parties

The indispensible Joel Kotkin is interviewed on Conservative Home and provides advice to both political parties on how to cope with the coming demographic changes in America.  My guess is only one of the parties will listen to Joel and get it right.

(Via Instapundit).

The New Suburbia

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a story on land planner Rick Harrison in Sunday's business section.  (Complete with photo!)  Alert readers of this blog will recall that I sponsored an event with Rick at the Pollution Control Agency headquarters earlier this month.  Rick has some great ideas about saving suburbia from itself and revitalizing urban communities, not just for the rich gentrifiers, but for all income levels.

I recommend his book Prefurbia for a complete take on the subject.  He takes the challenge of New Urbanism and goes them one better, with dense developments that humans would actually want to live in.

Walter Russell Mead on the Need to Dismantle the Guild Economy

The indispensable Walter Russell Mead goes a long to to explaining just how our nation's elites became "credentialed but not educated."  His December 8th post on his blog lays out a convincing case on why America's intellectual class are not part of the solution to our current crisis.  A few of the key sentences:

"For America to move forward, power is going to have to shift from bureaucrats to entrepreneurs, from the state to society and from qualified experts and licensed professionals to the population at large."

"Just as the industrial revolution broke up the manufacturing guilds, the information revolution today is breaking up the knowledge guilds."


(Via Instapundit by way of Ed Driscoll).

John Stossel on Hernando do Soto

John Stossel writes a column on Hernando de Soto a Peruvian economist with a few simple but brilliant ideas to end world poverty:  property rights and the rule of law.  In the developed world, we take these concepts for granted.  De Soto literally wants to rebuild from the bottom up:  starting with addresses for slum dwellings.

In my book, his Nobel prize should have arrived in the mail before Al Gore's.

Campaign against Inverted Block Rates Heats Up

Hate to be a bore, but the campaign against inverted block rates and revenue decoupling is heating up (so to speak).  WCCO TV, channel 4 on your local dial, did a story on last night's 10 o'clock news on Centerpoint's new rate structure for natural gas.  The story makes the great point that higher prices for large users discriminates against big families and has more than a little social engineering element to it.

Inverted Block Rates--Wait, don't fall asleep yet!

It's just getting interesting.  Twin Cities Business magazine, in the December issue, has an article on this new utility ratemaking concept, of which I am not a fan.  With inverted block rates, the more natural gas you use, the higher price you pay per unit.  As an analogy, consider the idea that the driver of a Hummer should pay $5 a gallon for gasoline, but the driver of a Prius, should only pay $2 per gallon.  It penalizes the large user (forget economies of scale and volume discounts).  So you can see why environmentalists like it, it has that punitive element they crave.

But it also penalizes the low-income user, who lives in an old, poorly-insulated home.

It's all part of "revenue decoupling", removing the connection between the profit a utility makes and actually delivering the commodity they sell.  Good work if you can get it!

Back to the Future

Politico reports that the Obama administration may be open to building more nuclear plants, as part of a "Clean Energy" push.  With China building dozens of new reactors, nuclear should be part of our energy mix, too, even as we struggle to find an answer to long-term waste storage.

Electric Cars and the Smart Grid

Readers of this blog will come to learn that I am a big proponent of the Smart Grid in electricity.  The two upcoming events highlighted at the right both address Smart Grid development in Minnesota.  Cisco News has a column on Electric Cars as the Killer App that Smart Grid is waiting for.  Smart Grid--bringing 21st century information technology to a 19th century industry--has the potential to revolutionize electric power.

I see smart grid as not another mandate like wind power, or a panacea that will cure climate change, but as a vehicle for giving consumers control over their electric use--in the same way that the mobile phone has given consumers control over information flows.

The Electric Car may or may not become the killer app for smart grid, but smart grid, if implemented correctly, will certainly be the killer app for electric power in the 21st century, like the light bulb was the killer app in the 19th.  (Via Midwest Energy News)

Rebuilding from the Bottom Up

Daniel Hannan is an MEP (Member of the European Parliament) from Southeastern England.  Along with Doug Carswell, MP, he is one of the co-founders of Direct Democracy UK, a movement promoting self-governance in the United Kingdom.  I recommend Dan's Daily Telegraph blog, where he covers a wide range of subjects.  In his latest post, he discusses (with bonus Jefferson quote!) how institutions--like the EU, FIFA, UN--tend to become corrupt the farther they get from the people to whom they are supposed to be accountable, which will become a recurring theme on this Blog.

Now It Can Be Told

The Guardian newspaper reveals Wikileaks diplomatic cables showing US pressure ahead of last year's failed Copenhagen climate summit.  "Putting science back in its rightful place."  (Via Drudge).

Reframing the Energy Debate

Last week in the Economist, the magazine takes a hard look at climate adaptation (preparing better for floods, drought), rather than mitigation (cap and trade, carbon tax).  If it's going to get warmer (regardless of cause) let's prepare for the likely effects (by strengthening critical infrastructure), rather than imposing costly, top-down solutions that we know won't work.

California: A Cautionary Tale

From the Orange County Register, Steven Greenhut gives us another take on the disaster that is the Golden State.  (Includes bonus Joel Kotkin quote.)  Today's California was once considered a glimpse into the future for those of us in the other 49.   It's still true, but no longer meant as a compliment.  (Via Randal O'Toole)

The Title Says it All

"Why the Future of Clean Energy is Dirty Coal" by James Fallows in this month's the Atlantic.  (I still want to call it the Atlantic Monthly.)  James' heresy available here.

Western Civ in Decline

(Via Drudge) USNews' Mort Zuckerman on the risks of a double dip recession.  Mort chronicles the fall here.

Changing the Climate Debate

This article in Monday's Wall Street Journal, by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, makes a valiant attempt at reframing the climate debate in a useful direction.  Link to WSJ.