Re: theWatt Podcast 77

I think government support is a very tricky business. The dollar value of the support must be carefully considered. I have once seen the idea that "government should not providing financial incentives for things that people are likely to do even without the incentives". I am not sure if that is right or wrong, but it is at least a framework for considering incentive proposals.
On the good side of this is perhaps support for PV solar panels or windmills. Without support, my sense is that not much would happen (by the way in Massachusetts this support comes from user fees on electricity).
On the bad side of this is support for CFLs. In my area there are frequent rebates ($1 or $2 per bulb) for CFLs. Since I can buy CFLs for $1 each, local stores actually raise prices when the rebates are available. So the money actually goes to the store or the bulb manufacturer and not to the customer. I don't think this is a good situation.
For the $3300 rebate on my Prius, I am also not sure who gets the money. The rebate also seemed to increase the price of the car. The US$24,000 price for the car was a little high, but something I was willing to pay. So I am not sure about the merit of such incentives.

There is one other interesting case. I have a brother-in-law in the dirty power business (gas-fired electricity). He wants there to be a carbon tax because he sees this as the only way to compete with coal-fired plants. Electricity from coal is about US$0.01/KWH cheaper than gas-fired electricity. So the gas-fired plants in NE are off-line 75% of the time and the coal fired ones are always on. A carbon tax could change that situation. This makes a big difference to my brother -in-law. But for me, I am not that much interested in the coal-fired versus gas-fired debate. When I think of carbon tax, I am more interested in renewables.

Perhaps you guys have already discussed RPS (renewable portfolio standards) but that is happening here in Massachusetts and not going well. The renewable power is not being added fast enough and the power companies are paying millions in "alternative compliance mechanisms" (fines). So renewable energy is not succeeding in the way envisioned by the RPS authors.
John C. Briggs