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Daily Archives: May 22, 2016

Resource Investment in Competitive Markets

Resource Investment in Competitive Markets – PJM Interconnection, May 5, 2016

Executive Summary – “Organized wholesale electricity markets were created to address burgeoning costs of new power generation under the traditional regulatory scheme and to encourage innovation through free-enterprise competition. The discipline of the marketplace promised lower costs and greater efficiencies. Two decades of experience and numerous studies have demonstrated competitive wholesale markets in PJM and elsewhere bring increased operational efficiency and innovation, resulting from transparent market prices and the benefits of single, independent dispatch across a broad region. These benefits are realized through economies of scale that permit optimization of a large and diverse set of resources and load. The resulting efficiencies are measured in reduced heat rates and increased capacity factors . However, as a host of organic and external factors change the power supply landscape, some have questioned the efficacy of competitive wholesale markets at promoting the most efficient entry and exit of resources – especially compared to traditional utility regulation with administrative planning and direction, such as under a state-integrated resource plan. Various forces, including federal and state public policies, low- priced domestic natural gas and static or declining levels of wholesale electricity consumption, have challenged incumbent or “legacy” generation resources by increasing operating costs, creating capital investment needs and reducing revenues realized in PJM’s energy, capacity and ancillary service markets. For the least efficient of these resources – older, small coal units, single-unit nuclear stations and older, high-heat-rate natural gas and oil-fired generation– these cost and revenue pressures have threatened their ongoing viability and not unexpectedly have led to retirements in many cases. Consequently, some observers have questioned whether wholesale markets have forced premature retirements of viable legacy generating resources and whether markets can be relied upon to ensure adequate power supplies in light of the retirements. The questions raised with regard to decisions and outcomes related to the changing nature of the supply portfolio in PJM can be summarized as: Can we rely on PJM’s organized wholesale electricity market to efficiently and reliably manage the entry and exit of supply resources as external forces create tremendous uncertainty and potential industry transformation…”

 

Know Your Worth: Angel Financing of Female Entrepreneurial Ventures

Poczter, Sharon and Shapsis, Melanie, Know Your Worth: Angel Financing of Female Entrepreneurial Ventures (May 19, 2016). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2782266 “This study explores success rates in angel financing based on the gender composition of entrepreneurial teams using unique, hand-collected data from the television program Shark Tank. We find that the likelihood of… Continue Reading

Intellectual Property in Asia: ASEAN, East Asia and India

Antons, Christoph, Intellectual Property in Asia: ASEAN, East Asia and India (May 19, 2016). The Oxford Handbook of Intellectual Property Law, Rochelle Dreyfuss and Justine Pila (eds), Oxford University Press, Forthcoming. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2782263 “This paper covers parts of Asia with very significant recent developments in intellectual property (IP) law. IP reform… Continue Reading

Reining in the Big Promise of Big Data: Transparency, Inequality, and New Regulatory Frontiers

Hacker, Philipp and Petkova, Bilyana, Reining in the Big Promise of Big Data: Transparency, Inequality, and New Regulatory Frontiers (May 2, 2016). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2773527 “The growing differentiation of services based on Big Data harbors the potential for both greater societal inequality and for greater equality. Anti-discrimination law and transparency alone, however,… Continue Reading

TPP Study Projects Worsening Trade Balances for 16 of 25 U.S. Economic Sectors, Overall U.S. Trade Deficit Increase

“The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) released its report [May 18, 2016] assessing the likely impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement that the President has entered into with Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. The USITC’s report, Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Likely Impact on the U.S. Economy… Continue Reading

Raisins and Resilience: Elaborating Home’s Compensation Analysis with an Eye to Coastal Climate Change Adaptation

Galperin, Josh, Raisins and Resilience: Elaborating Home’s Compensation Analysis with an Eye to Coastal Climate Change Adaptation (February 1, 2016). Stanford Environmental Law Journal, Vol. 35, No. 3, 2016. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2781970 “The State of New Jersey, the Borough of Harvey Cedars, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers were all preparing for… Continue Reading

The Guardian – How the Pentagon punished NSA whistleblowers

Mark Hertsgaard – The Guardian – “By now, almost everyone knows what Edward Snowden did. He leaked top-secret documents revealing that the National Security Agency was spying on hundreds of millions of people across the world, collecting the phone calls and emails of virtually everyone on Earth who used a mobile phone or the internet.… Continue Reading