Articles by Sean Casten
Sean Casten is president & CEO of Recycled Energy Development, LLC, a company devoted to profitably reducing greenhouse emissions.
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Clean energy: It’s not about the technology
Suppose two factories produce and sell identical widgets at $1 each. Now, suppose a law is passed to provide one of those factories with $9 of additional revenue per widget. Clearly, this is law will distort markets. The $10 widget manufacturer will attract more investors and it will lobby hard to preserve that law. Meanwhile, […]
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Coal-fired power was the big loser in the economic downturn
There’s some interesting new data out on recent shifts in electricity demand and consumption, courtesy of the DOE/EIA. In 2008, total U.S. power generation was 4.1 million GWh. In 2009, that fell by 4 percent, to 3.9 million. That’s a 4 percent reduction — clearly the result of the economic slowdown. Nothing surprising there. What’s […]
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Prices vs. contracts: Why good CO2 policy needs complex financial markets
Economic theory is predicated on the thesis that if supply and demand are allowed to freely set the price for a given item, rational capital allocation (and a host of other social benefits) will follow. Much of public policy is predicated on the truth of that thsis. But there’s a problem with the thesis: price […]
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Cap-and-dividend: the worst possible way to regulate GHG emissions
Cap-and-dividend stinks. There are probably worse ways to regulate GHG emissions, but none that have gotten any kind of traction inside the beltway. Its advocates — in particular, Peter Barnes and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) — are, so far as I can tell, truly motivated to find good policy solutions. I don’t know either of […]
