Heartland Daily Podcast – Robert Michaels: The Free Market for Energy

In this edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, Managing Editor of Enivronment and Climate News, H. Sterling Burnett speaks with Robert Michaels. Michaels is a professor of economics at California State University in Fullerton, and is an expert on energy markets, energy regulation and electric power deregulation.

Michaels discusses where, and the extent to which, electricity markets have formed and are expanding. He discusses the drawbacks of renewable energy and how renewable energy mandates have made the U.S. electricity grid more vulnerable to outages. Finally, he discusses the high costs, in terms of dollars and consumer choice, of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s shift under the Obama administration from trying to ensure reliable, affordable electricity provided through competition, to an agency focused on reigning in markets and novel ideas through lawsuits, ultimately restraining competition.

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