Toma nota.../Take note...

California’s state legislature is determined to eliminate fossil fuel as soon as possible, with oil at the top of the list. This goal is shared by the Governor and Attorney General, along with leadership and staff at every one of the many state agencies that collectively regulate the industry. But even if this goal is necessary and desirable, which is debatable, the methods being employed to achieve it are flawed. 

To begin with, and this can’t be repeated often enough, California still depends on petroleum for 50 percent of its total energy, and natural gas for another 30 percent. Dependence on gasoline is proving difficult to reduce, as California’s EV sales are leveling off, with 2024 likely to show no growth over 2023. And even after years of dramatic year-over-year sales growth, EVs still comprise less than 5 percent of California’s total registered vehicles.

It’s possible that at the present level of price and performance, most of the consumers who want to purchase EVs have already done so. It’s also not clear that we will have achieved adequate generating, charging, and transmission infrastructure by the time the percentage of EVs on the road doubles or triples, much less becomes the majority of vehicles.

La prima de riesgo se desploma en Argentina y la inflación cae a mínimos de tres años.

El plan Milei sigue dando sus frutos, al menos, en lo que a economía financiera se refiere. Los mercados financieros, a través de las decisiones de los inversores, están llevando a que el riesgo país de Argentina (conocida como prima de riesgo en Europa) caía niveles no vistos desde hace años.

El plan Milei, basado en recortes de gasto, desregulación y atracción de inversión internacional, está sorprendiendo a los mercados. Aunque la economía real sigue sufriendo con intensidad esta política (es el coste de corto plazo), la economía financiera está despertando con más intensidad de lo esperado. El último dato que ha impulsado el precio de los bonos argentinos en los mercados fue el de inflación. El IPC publicado el pasado viernes arrojó que la inflación mensual en Argentina ha caído por fin por debajo del 4%, lo que fue acogido con gran entusiasmo entre los inversores.

La Real Academia Sueca de las Ciencias valora sus estudios sobre cómo se forman las instituciones y afectan a la prosperidad entre países.

Estocolmo, Oct. 14.– Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson y James A. Robinson han recibido este lunes el Premio Nobel de Ciencias Económicas de 2024 por sus estudios sobre "cómo se forman las instituciones y afectan a la prosperidad", anunció la Real Academia Sueca de las Ciencias. Los dos primeros son profesores en el Massachusetts Institute of Technolgy (MIT), en Boston (EEUU), y el tercero, en la Universidad de Chicago.

Todos los Nobel están dotados este año con 11 millones de coronas suecas (976.000 euros, 1,1 millones de dólares). Solo tres mujeres han ganado el galardón desde que se instituyó en 1969. Se trata de Claudia Goldin el año pasado, Esther Dufo, en 2019; y Elinor Ostrom, en 2009.

Earlier this year the New York Times published an opinion piece, “What Will We Do With Our Free Power?,” written by David Wallace Wells. The sheer optimism of the piece was a breath of fresh air. Rather than emphasizing the existential terror of a climate crisis that renewable energy may help us avert, the author focused on the plummeting costs of photovoltaic electricity, with facts to back up his assertions.

When evaluating California’s energy policy, the scale of the transformation the state has embarked upon could use a bit more optimism. Ratepayers who are exhausted by the current runup in electricity prices compared to other states would be encouraged if they understood the path we’re on is likely, within just a few more years, to compel providers to compete on price to serve electricity in abundance.

To test this theory, consider the return on investment for a solar power producer even at today’s prices. The installed cost for utility-scale photovoltaics is now down to under $1.50 per watt. This means that via a 25 year, 6 percent per year construction loan, the break-even cost for sold electricity is only $.05 per kilowatt-hour. That’s an annual average, but even in winter, break-even productivity sufficient to cover the construction loan payment would only be around $.08 per kilowatt-hour. At that rate, solar capacity can be profitably overbuilt to deliver energy even in winter.