{"id":283061,"date":"2023-10-12T20:38:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T18:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=283061"},"modified":"2023-10-12T20:38:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T18:38:04","slug":"stealth-electricity-statism-giberson-exchange-for-the-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=283061","title":{"rendered":"Stealth Electricity Statism: Giberson Exchange (for the record)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Wind turbines in the Papalote Creek Wind Farm near Taft, TX. Monday, Oct. 28, 2013.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas path for the clean energy transition will end in Chaos.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From\u00a0Master Resource<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Bradley Jr.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cSo will Michael Giberson and Lynn Kiesling ever consider the opportunity cost of their politicized electricity \u2018market\u2019? Will they consider a real<\/em> free market that was at the center of the classical liberal debate before mandatory open access (etc.) came along<\/a>? How much failure\u2013and how far on the \u2018road to serfdom\u2019 does U.S. energy policy have to go before mid-course corrections?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Lynne Kiesling and her close associate Michael Giberson have done great damage to the simple conception of a free-market electricity market and related public policy. By the use of hidden assumptions, cloudy definitions, and disengagement (all to \u201craise rival\u2019s cost\u201d), they have misled many free-market scholars in regard to a fundamental industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am documenting this as much as I can for the historical record. Kiesling counters that I am ignorant of the technical subject matter and exhibit \u201caggressiveness\u201d in my quest for clarification and openness. As it is, my basic questions get answered only in bits and pieces and only after, yes, direct confrontation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this, Lynne has admitted<\/a> to her \u201csynthetic theory of regulation and technological change\u201d where \u201cthe grid is a common pool resource in which it is literally\u2014literally\u2014impossible to define and enforce property rights.\u201d This is statism on stilts<\/em>\u2013with no midcourse correction amid the Biden Administration\u2019s step-by-step takeover of power grid (and energy markets in general). Free-market advocates beware\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Giberson is less evasive and arrogant, but he is beholden to Lynne and has chosen the statist route with R Street<\/a>. My exchange below began when he reposted<\/a> a piece by Pat Wood III with the comment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pat Wood: \u201cOutsiders are surprised when I assert that Texas is setting the global path for the clean energy transition. That shift is happening here faster than anywhere else. And it\u2019s being driven by markets and innovators, not by monopolies and governments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bradley<\/a>: Mike: no critical comment here? \u2018All of the above\u2019 with wind and solar and batteries okay with you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giberson<\/strong>: Yes, I believe markets will continue to work, even with wind and solar and batteries. Obviously grid operation rules are, like for instance the rules of the road affecting pizza delivery, not market outcomes but rather part of the group-determined rules needed for multiple companies to jointly share the grid.

As problems emerge participants will need to continue to work on the grid rules to discourage too much free riding on the reliability efforts of others. Some rules may be targeted to problems associated with particular technology (ie resources interconnecting via grid-following inverters may reasonably be treated differently than other resources). Other than that sort of limitation the market rules should aspire to tech neutrality and \u201call of the above\u201d is great (or rather, \u201cwhatever consumers want to pay for\u201d is great).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bradley<\/strong><\/a>: If you think a governmental market of central wholesale planning (ISOs\/RTOs) is a market, and a worst-energies-first is a market, then the concept of a free market has no meaning.

Under price controls, there is still a market. A legal market, a black market, etc. But it is the very opposite of what a free market, classical liberal considers a market.

Your analogy of delivery on a government road is not very persuasive in the case of electricity. Any other analogies?

The \u201cvirtual power plant\u2019 is about as Statist as I can think of, short of a nationalized grid. \u2018Real time pricing\u2019 in the framework is government rationing once removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giberson<\/strong><\/a>: Re: \u201cThe \u2018virtual power plant\u2019 is about as Statist as I can think of, short of a nationalized grid. \u2018Real time pricing\u2019 in the framework is government rationing once removed.\u201d

Rob, your objections need substance. What is \u201cstatist\u201d about so-called virtual power plants? In ERCOT a VPP is simply a retailer coordinating demand-side resources to reduce consumer costs and help stabilize the market. It\u2019s a tiny effort, all things considered, but it is one tiny way some consumers can better manage their energy use. What on earth is your objection?

\u201cReal-time pricing \u2026 is government rationing once removed\u201d? I assumed you understood the role of energy imbalance markets in electric markets, but now I\u2019m not so sure. Most power that flows through ERCOT is bought\/sold through long-term or short-term contracts negotiated bilaterally between generators and retailers. Because of natural variability between planned consumption and actual consumption on the demand side, and similarly on the supply side, physical production and consumption will not precisely match contracted volumes. In ERCOT the imbalances are settled at market prices based on voluntary bids and offers made available to the market. This is the real time price.

Gov rationing? No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I responded<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Virtual Power Plant is an energy-environmental term for a continuation of the present to where (open-ended, highly subsidized) wind and solar penetration is joined by batteries to have a transformed grid. That is Statism-on-stilts on the supply side. \u201cTiny\u201d efforts toward this goal might be a \u2018tiny\u2019 definition of VPPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A centrally planned wholesale market (PUCT\/ERCOT) here in Texas, with wind, solar, battery takeover, does not generate prices that a free market does. It is political pricing inherited downstream. (Any direct CO2 pricing adds to this.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political pricing from government-induced supply distortions\/shortages is \u201cgovernment once removed.\u201d It is more government intervention to rescue prior. And with smart meters, instruction to thermostats to be lower in winter and higher in summer (etc.) is government in the home and business. It is a \u2018road to serfdom\u201d by decree and degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opportunity cost in political economy terms is the free market vs. Statism. The free market stands as the alternative to dealing with the problems of intervention at each piecemeal junction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That fact that you (and Lynne \u201cI will not dance to your tune\u201d Kiesling) refuse to even present\/consider the true free market alternative (traditionally defined)\u2013and are exclusively wed to a \u2018make-statism-work-better\u2019 paradigm\u2013is what is very peculiar and disingenuous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disengagement, as in: Gone. Silence. No reply. The same story (chronically) with Kiesling here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So will Michael Giberson and Lynn Kiesling ever consider the opportunity cost of their politicized electricity \u201cmarket\u201d? Will they consider a\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0free market that was\u00a0at the center of the classical liberal debate before mandatory open access (et al.) came along<\/a>? How much failure\u2013and how far on the \u2018road to serfdom\u2019 does U.S. energy policy have to go before mid-course corrections?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas path for the clean energy transition will end in Chaos. From\u00a0Master Resource By Robert Bradley Jr. \u201cSo will Michael Giberson and Lynn Kiesling ever consider the opportunity cost of their politicized electricity \u2018market\u2019? Will they consider a real free market that was at the center of the classical liberal debate before mandatory open access (etc.) came along? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":283063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Texas path for the clean energy transition will end in Chaos.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818564,691823281,691823572,691819094,691823573],"class_list":{"0":"post-283061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-batteries","9":"tag-electric-reliability-council-of-texas-ercot-2","10":"tag-electricity-market","11":"tag-renewable-green-energy","12":"tag-the-grid","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/00rawImage-1.jpg?fit=2048%2C1077&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1bDv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":381398,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=381398","url_meta":{"origin":283061,"position":0},"title":"Why Regulate Electricity? 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The laws of physics do not preclude private ownership and control of assets in this area unless you\u00a0assume\u00a0mandatory open access\u2013Lynne Kiesling\u2019s Ostrom trick\u2013to make private operation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"control areas\"","block_context":{"text":"control areas","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=control-areas"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/f626b73d9f138dac7aee6300df15d2e1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/f626b73d9f138dac7aee6300df15d2e1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/f626b73d9f138dac7aee6300df15d2e1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/f626b73d9f138dac7aee6300df15d2e1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/f626b73d9f138dac7aee6300df15d2e1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":303627,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=303627","url_meta":{"origin":283061,"position":1},"title":"The Great Texas Blackout of 2021: Triumph of the Unreliables","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/20\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Three years ago this month, a prolonged, extensive cold snap did the unthinkable to Texas\u2019s huge electricity grid. 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