Publications
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Regulatory Reform, Capture, and the Regulatory Burden. OXREP Vol. 22 No. 2
1st September 2006
It has become a conventional wisdom that regulation is at best a necessary evil and at worst an inhibition to productivity, employment, and economic growth. There are strident demands, predominantly from industrial interests, for the 'regulatory burden' to be reduced.
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Inquiry into Issues Relating to Nuclear New Build
2nd June 2006
Nuclear new build is one of the techonology options under active consideration in the Energy Review. Much of the review process has been devoted to 'whether' to encourage a new nuclear build programme. Less attention has been devoted to 'how' this might be achieved.
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OXREP special edition on Regulation
1st June 2006
Oxford Review of Economic Policy, special edition on regulation, summer 2006
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Energy Policy: Politics v Economics
15th May 2006
Published in the New Statesman, 15th May 2006, pp. viii-ix. Energy policy tends to bring out the worst in politicians of all parties. Not only do they want to pursue multiple and often incompatible goals, but they have an inherent tendency to support pet technologies. Thus when the last energy review began in 2001, the Prime Minister declared that the aim was 'cheap energy' which was also 'sustainable and secure' - and indeed, that energy review went on to make the extraordinary claim that a...
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Ownership Utility Regulation and Financial Structures: an Emerging Model
14th January 2006
Recent corporate activity and the emergence of highly geared companies in the utility and infrastructure sectors have raised fundamental questions about risk, returns and the appropriate responses from investors and regulators. A gradual revolution has been taking place in the ownership and financing of utilities and infrastructure, moving away from the pure equity model of the 1980s and 1990s towards higher gearing, with pension and life funds becoming either de facto or de jure the new owners...
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Economic Instruments and Environmental Policy
1st December 2005
Published in The Economic and Social Review, 36(3), 205-228. Environmental resources are scarce and many are getting scarcer. Resource allocation problems abound and recent experience is disheartening. Despite the growing scientific consensus on global warming, action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been largely ineffectual. Progress with energy efficiency measures and on renewables has been slow.
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House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Evidence
16th November 2005
This memorandum focuses on three issues: the supply/demand balance in the energy sector; the linkage between security of supply, investment and the climate change objectives; and the energy policy framework required to promote low carbon technologies. In particular, the option of using carbon and capacity markets rather than planning and 'picking winners'; and the issues surrounding investments in new nuclear power stations will be discussed.
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A New British Energy Policy
1st November 2005
Published by the Social Market Foundation, November 2005. This book analyses the paradigm shift in British energy policy that has taken place since the 1980s and 1990s. To understand the implications, we need first to set out its characteristics and then analyse how far actual policy has responded, and in particular whether the 2003 Energy White Paper meets the requirements. There follows an exposition of the key principles and considerations for the design of a new energy policy, which...
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European Energy Policy
25th October 2005
For the past two decades Europe has focused overwhelmingly on the completion of the European energy market, and in particular on liberalisation of electricity and gas markets. This process is close to completion, subject to the last phases of market opening and a number of 'difficult' cases. Europe's energy is now supplied overwhelmingly by private companies competing in liberalised markets.
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Carbon Contracts and Energy Policy: An Outline Proposal
6th October 2005
By Dieter Helm and Cameron Hepburn, New College and St Hugh's College, Oxford