Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Energy, Al Gore, and Audioslave

1) Lynne Kiesling over at www.knowledgeproblem.com wonders why there is no talk of dynamic pricing or offering customers differentiated products that would reduce the need for increased generation and distributional capacity in the TXU deal. This would include such things as variable pricing. It costs the most to generate electricity when the plant is running at or near capacity. By offering variable pricing arrangements (similar to congestion tolls), electricity users could consume power when it costs less, such as at night during the summer, and consume less when is costs the most, such as the middle of summer days. This would more efficiently use electricity generation and distribution resources, reducing the need for additional plants and wires.

Why am I skeptical about the possibility of this happening? Because the public is woefully ignorant about economics and practically now elected official or bureaucrat knows jack about economics.

2) Apparently Al Gore doesn't practice what he preaches: http://www.tennesseepolicy.org/main/article.php?article_id=367
Gore's mansion consumes more electricity in one month that the average American household does in one year. Then again I forget that Al Gore is a member of the Anointed and the moral standards the rest of us are subject to don't apply to him. (See Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions or The Vision of the Anointed for more on the Anointed.)

3) Audioslave was a fairly popular rock band that I actually liked. You can check out their songs for free at http://xsao.net if you're interested. They broke up recently. Three of the members were in Rage Against the Machine prior to forming Audioslave. Rage was a socialist (communist is probably closer to the mark) band and proud of it. They were and are (they've regrettably gotten back together) a socialist band as opposed to a band that is socialist. According to a friend of his, the singer of Audioslave Chris Cornell apparently quit the band because he was tired of writing all the music and splitting the revenue from the publishing rights four ways.

I guess Chris is not a socialist and couldn't stomach the other guys making money off his labor. Perhaps America trading Rage Against the Machine to France for Johnny Hallyday (see my post from a few days ago) will make all parties happy. Maybe this will make the rest of the guys rethink their socialist mentality, but I doubt it. If the rest of band had just respected property rights and the division of laobr a little more, Audioslave might still be around. Thanks to www.antimusic.com for the story. They're always a great source for under the radar music news.

No comments: