Fixing America, Part III

Point three on our list is energy dependence. This can and must be addressed on multiple levels and from multiple angles. Much of this is related to one particular type of so-called market failure, a situation in which markets do not provide optimal results. Even staunch believers in markets (like the writers of this blog) know these exist. The type in question here are called externalities. These are costs of doing something that are not paid by the person doing it. Pollution is the prime example. It is much cheaper for a factory to dump its waste into a nearby river than to pay to dispose of it properly. This does not mean that dumping waste in the river has no cost. On the contrary, the costs are extreme. The pollution may kill fish and poison water supplies downstream, killing people and making them sick. When the overall cost of dumping waste into a river is seen, one notices that the costs to everyone in total of properly disposing of the waste are actually very small by comparison. If the factory owner had to pay the costs in both situations, he or she would choose to properly dispose of the waste, as it is much cheaper.

In the above situation, the best method is probably regulation. Dumping is forbidden, the river is tested for pollution, anyone caught dumping waste is punished with severe fines or jail time. This works well when there are only a few polluters who are easy to monitor. In the absence of any regulation, non-polluting companies would go out of business because they would have to spend more to dispose of their waste, putting them an a disadvantage. This is the reason regulation in necessary. Calls for "morality" are pointless: without government help (e.g. via regulation or externality charges), the "moral" business owners are put out of business. Competition then selects the "immoral" ones for survival. This, by the way, is the same reason politicians lie: the ones who tell is like it is are never elected. Voters don't want to hear the truth, they vote for liars and then are shocked when lied to. My point is: analyze incentives. Do politicians have an incentive to lie? Do businesses have the incentive to cheat and pollute? If the answer is yes, you can rest assured that all these things are happening. Furthermore, you should think about how to change the incentives. Regulation and enforcement are often the answer for industry, a free press is the best solution for government (and certainly also helps for industry).

But why are we talking about pollution when we should be discussing energy dependence? Well, the two are linked. Much of the imported oil used in the US goes to transportation. Driving a car has a number of negative externalities, among them: pollution, noise, congestion, and increased danger of accidents. All of these things become worse the more people are driving on a given road. Charging for these externalities would increase efficiency (this is also discussed in Harford's book). Charging for congestion in areas where it is a problem would increase the costs to the drivers directly, who might then decide that public transport, biking, carpooling, etc. would be a better option. The money collected could be used to improve roads, rails, and public transit. This would reduce travel times to work for those willing to pay the congestion fees, it would reduce transit times for deliveries, etc. This, along with charges for other externalities like CO2, a fee for SUV drivers, whose large cars endanger other drivers, etc., would also reduce fuel consumption. An increased carbon price (via auctioned cap and trade credits, not given away, as currently planned) would encourage industries to cut carbon in whatever way is sensible for them, or to buy additional credits if that makes no sense for them. This allows each individual to decide what makes the most sense for her, and ensures that those who cause problems also pay for them. This would reduce oil imports and promote energy independence. Not only that, it would reduce waste from cars in traffic jams, cut delivery times, and generally increase efficiency in congested cities. It would also serve to increase the commercial viability of public transit (even if it is not subsidized, which would still make sense).

Why should we subsidize mass transit? Because we already subsidize private transit. Who pays for the roads everyone uses? Taxpayers! Yes, some of this comes from fuel and automobile taxes, meaning the people who use the roads pay for them, but much of it also comes from general taxes. This is a form of subsidy for car drivers.

Who pays for the rails and train cars? In most cases, only those who use them. This is obviously an unfair disadvantage.

All of this would make America a more efficient place, not to mention making driving there less frustrating. However, it would alsp admittedly make driving more expensive in previously congested areas. This sounds unfair for the poor, right? Yet another reason the funds should flow into improving public transit. Don't forget that no one is forced to use the roads as long as there is an alternative. If public transit gets better as a result, people who decide they cannot afford to drive to work will have much better alternative ways to get there.

OK, this is all well and good, but what does it have to do with energy dependency? Obviously this would serve to reduce fuel consumption or at least slow its growth. But we sense intuitively that this cannot be enough. After all, the US imports more than half its oil.

Here's part II: we expect electric cars to start arriving in the coming decades. If this does happen, America will probably need more electrical generation capacity, or a huge increase in the efficiency with which our current supplies are used. Either way, one huge part of this solution is a better power transmission network, capable of transport power around the country from where it is abundant to where it is not with little loss of energy. Could the private sector take care of this? It would be nice, but the answer is no. Here's why: there are 50 states, all with different regulations and processes for building new transmission lines. This bureaucratic red tape insures that federal assistance, oversight, and legislative harmonization are needed to give the project and chance of working. The second reason is that there are a number of regional providers. Who should pay for the network? True, they could form a consortium to build it together, but all of them would have an incentive to cut corners and free ride. Fights would ensue as soon as a project started to cost more than it was supposed to. The project is best managed centrally by an authority that has the power to change laws as necessary to move things forward. That means the federal government. Sorry.

How would this network help? Different parts of the country, across 4 time zones in the Lower 48 alone have different energy needs at different times and seasons. If power plants are not interconnected, each has to have enough capacity to cover an area's maximum energy needs. If they are connected, power can be re-routed to where its needed.

This all would be useful as things are, but it gets really beneficial if more renewables are used. Solar power could be generated very efficiently in the American Southwest. In fact, the majority of the land in Arizona is owned by the state government and could be leased for sold for energy production. With a good direct-current transmission network, this energy could then be shipped around the country. At the same time, the Midwest is a great place for windfarms. This energy, too, could be sent to where it is needed. Chances are, most of the time that it's cloudy in the Southwest or quiet in the Midwest, generation in another place can make up for the loss. Otherwise, natural gas or even coal plants (less polluting because they are only used as backup) could be used to make up the difference. All this is only possible with a transmission network. (See link to Scientific American article on the subject).

All these things combined would reduce our dependency on foreign energy sources, cut CO2 emissions, and even make America a more economically-efficient place. How about off-shore drilling? I'm concerned about the environment, but I'm even more concerned about dependency. Maybe it's time to take a closer look at drilling on US territory...

Comments

  1. Yeah, I hear you. My whole thing was a message from achievable-utopia. It's all perfectly possible, but still Utopian in a lot of ways because of politics. But hey, if things get bad enough (i.e. oil prices start to rise again a few years down the road) maybe people will get the incentive. But I've no illusions about it. If it were easy it would already have been done!

    As for a carbon tax: Yeah probably a better (i.e. more feasible) way to do it. The main benefit is it would be somewhat harder to politicize. I like cap-and-trade for the possibility of creating a carbon market that could pay people to preserve forest land, etc.

    As for the offshore windfarm, they always place them far enough offshore so you can't see them (only needs 12 nm, surprisingly), so I've never really understood the objection. But that's the way it is.

    I've heard the land in New Mexico and Nevada is not of environmental concern, either. C'mon, people!

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