Energy Institute at Haas

An important, and discouraging, reminder that innovation continues in the fossil fuel industries as well as in renewables. Cheap oil and gas remains a major barrier to decarbonization .
www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...
🔌💡

Open Season for Western Expansion: Kinder Morgan and Phillips 66 Launch Western Gateway Pipeline Connecting Midwest Supply to the Southwest and California | Stillwater Associates Kinder Morgan and Phillips 66 announce the Western Gateway Pipeline open season, a new refined products corridor connecting Midwest supply to California, Arizona, and Nevada - reshaping Western fuel l...

Good update on Kinder Morgan plans for expanding refined product distributions to Arizona, California, and Nevada. This would be a benefit to producers and customers, but not clear there is enough value to shippers for the investment.
stillwaterassociates.com/open-season-...
🔌💡

‘Phantom’ data centres muddy forecasts for US power needs Developers are overstating energy needs and keeping projects alive even after they are no longer viable

Excellent article in FT on the problem of Phantom data centers making it difficult for utilities and grid operators to plan, and some of the solutions. I think gift link (on.ft.com/4otkC25) works only for first 3 who use it. Sorry.
www.ft.com/content/331f... 🔌💡

California’s undergrounding conundrum California regulators are poised to decide the future of power line safety.

“‘We’re fundamentally talking about hard tradeoffs between mitigating wildfire risk, managing reliability impacts and managing costs, which often translate...’ Meredith Fowlie in POLITICO
politico.com/newsletters/california-climate/2025/11/18/californias-undergrounding-conundrum-00658395

Choosing Between Increasing Subsidies or Lowering Rates for Electrification With California’s cap-and-trade program renewed, policymakers have choices about how to effect change. Just a year ago, the transition from fossil-fueled to electrified transportation and buildings…

In this week's Energy Institute blog, Andy Campbell digs into the debate over how to use money from California's cap and trade auctions to support clean energy and electrification.
energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/c...
🔌💡

Update on California's Mystery Gasoline Surcharge: holding steady around $0.50 per gallon. In last 6 weeks, however, mostly due to higher spot prices, not downstream margins. Worrisome given one recent and one impending refinery closure. For context: energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/08/18/c...

Closely related reporting from OPIS
www.opis.com/resources/en...

Fairly detailed update on CA gasoline market. But omits fact that CA spot price was $0.70-$0.90 above NY/Gulf for > 1 month after Chevron El Segundo fire, rather than normal $0.15-$0.30. CA needs more storage to avoid spikes in this new world. Plus end to Jones Act.
www.opis.com/resources/en...

California’s undergrounding conundrum California regulators are poised to decide the future of power line safety.

“'We’re fundamentally talking about hard tradeoffs between mitigating wildfire risk, managing reliability impacts and managing costs...' said Meredith Fowlie, faculty director of the University of California, Berkeley, Energy Institute at Haas."

politi.co/3Kbvd3p

Opinion | Newsom's gas price crusade morphs into bid to keep refiners open A study Gov. Gavin Newsom commissioned describes higher margins oil refiners receive for their products, which become gasoline.

"...price differential is due to taxes and regulatory costs and that there’s a 'mystery surcharge'...a phenomenon first identified eight years ago by @severinborenstein.bsky.social" - Cal Matters
calmatters.org/commentary/2025/11/newsoms-gas-price-crusade-refiners/

New Energy Institute Blog Post: Choosing Between Increasing Subsidies or Lowering Rates for Electrification - by @campbellenergy.bsky.social

energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/c...

Kansas, Michigan regulators approve large load rules for Evergy, Consumers Energy The new rules, plus proposed legislation in Delaware, aim to ensure that existing utility customers don’t pay costs related to interconnecting data centers and manufacturers.

Hard-nosed rules for new large load interconnections are catching on across the political spectrum. A good sign for protecting existing customers from rate increases driven by stranded T&D investments.
www.utilitydive.com/news/kansas-...
🔌💡

Spreading the Cap-and-Trade Wealth Last month, when Gov. Newsom signed a bill extending California’s cap and trade program to 2045, one section of the bill mandated changes in the “Climate Credit” that residential customers have bee…

In my EI blog post today, I discuss the CA debate over how to return some of the cap and trade revenue to households and explain why I think a fixed rebate for every household the utility serves should be replace by a discount per-kilowatt-hour.
energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/s... 🔌💡

“We’re eliminating refineries faster than consumers are switching to electric vehicles...This deepens a paradox: the drive for a cleaner future is colliding with persistent fuel demand." - @severinborenstein.bsky.social in MSN News

www.msn.com/en-us/money/...

Massachusetts heat-pump owners are about to get cheaper electricity The state’s innovative winter heat-pump rates go into effect this weekend and should make the tech more accessible. Deeper discounts could come next year.

Canary media correct that MA elec rate is way above MC, bc much of price pays for infrastructure that is not constrained except at peak hour, so high price distorts customer behavior. So true for heat pumps. Also for excessive incentive to install rooftop solar.
www.canarymedia.com/articles/hea...

New Energy Institute Blog Post: Spreading the Cap-and-Trade Wealth - @severinborenstein.bsky.social

energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/spreading-the-cap-and-trade-wealth/

#climatechange #electricity #energyefficiency #naturalgas #solar

Is your electric bill going up? AI is partly to blame Across the country, demand for electricity is on the rise — and so is the price of electric power.

"If you could get these data centers to get off the grid, say 50-60 hours a year, they really wouldn't create any cost pressure at all," @severinborenstein.bsky.social on NPR.

www.npr.org/2025/11/06/n...

Kinder Morgan talking about building a new pipeline from TX to CA through AZ. Seems like a big bet CA won't respond to declining refinery capacity by increasing capacity to receive tanker imports. Will KM get enough subscribers to build it?
www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...

Does Regulation Distort Exit Decisions? New study shows regulated coal and gas units were 45% less likely to exit between 2011 and 2023. (Today’s post is co-authored by Paige Weber.) Hundreds of power plants have closed in the United Sta…

In EI blog, Lucas Davis and Paige Weber explain their new paper finds regulated IOUs are less responsive to wholesale prices than merchant generators in their decisions to close a plant. That leads to important inefficiencies in the generation fleet.
energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/d...
💡🔌

Well said, Tyler.

US ethanol exports on the rise. Very discouraging bc it continues to be sold as low-GHG. Lots of evidence that it is not. Also worth noting that CA recently started allowing 15% ethanol blend. Other states already *allow*, but most retailerscontinue to sell E-10 instead.
www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...

Not sure how this got past the administration's communication controls, but EIA had a nice piece last Friday on the increasing role of solar/wind/batteries in Texas.
www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...
🔌💡

We Finally Know How to Get the One Renewable Energy Source Loved by Both Parties Geothermal energy comes closer to competing with natural gas on cost and reliability, boosters say, thanks to new technologies, generous tax incentives and decades of fundamental research.

Fascinating WSJ on recent geothermal power developments, much due to fed govt support. To me, an economist with no technical knowledge on this, super exciting. Hope they can get the economics to work very soon.
www.wsj.com/business/ene...
CA sends mixed signals
www.utilitydive.com/news/newsom-...
🔌💡

“'If strawberries are expensive, I’ll buy apples—there are substitutes...Electricity, in the long run, there aren’t many substitutes.'” - Prof. Fowlie on @wsj.com

wsj.com/economy/consumers/surging-power-costs-are-putting-the-squeeze-on-customers-f8b2c04b

#energybills #electricity #datacenters

New Energy Institute Blog Post: Does Regulation Distort Exit Decisions? - Lucas Davis (co-authored by Paige Weber)

energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/d...

In an era of rising rates, policies to strengthen power system flexibility can lower costs The right policies can provide grid flexibility, which reduces demand-driven rate spikes and protects consumers while allowing utilities to build out the grid, experts say.

@severinborenstein.bsky.social in Utility Dive. "Using flexibility to reduce new large load demand peaks spreads utilities’ increased sales across times when infrastructure and supply are adequate, Borenstein said." www.utilitydive.com/news/in-an-e...

The Fast Lane to Electric Vehicle Charging Where the permitting reform rubber meets the road. A record number of Americans went electric vehicle shopping last quarter. Between July and September, EVs accounted for 10% of new vehicle sales i…

Meredith Fowlie's latest Energy Institute Blog, on expediting permitting for electric vehicle chargers.
energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/t...

Save the Date for POWER Conference on March 20, 2026 (Paper Submissions Due January 7, 2026)!

haas.berkeley.edu/energy-insti...

Carbon Pricing on the High Seas? The international maritime organization gets close to a carbon tax. — If an environmental economist stumbled upon a magic lamp and got one wish from the genie, most of us would know what to a…

Earlier this year countries and industry came together to develop and adopt a groundbreaking carbon policy, applied to 85% of global shipping. Earlier this month the policy ran aground due to US opposition. James Sallee looks at the policy. energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/c...

New English-proficiency guidelines for truck drivers are causing a stir Today on AirTalk: Changes in the Department of Transportation's policy regarding English proficiency are causing a stir; Public opinion changes around nuclear power; NBA season preview; and the basics...

“We know we need a lot of electricity, and nuclear provides a large, reliable, low-carbon source of power.” - Lucas Davis on LAist

laist.com/shows/airtal...