Maryland Power Plants

Nice long overview today in the Baltimore Sun on the situation in Maryland regarding power generation. Turns out our state pays the 13th highest rates in the industry, and though the article dances around the topic, it sounds to me like the bottom line is that it's a monopoly, and they're doing what monopolies do: raise the prices and produce less. In Baltimore we pay a "capacity payments" since the power we import comes along what is apparently a pretty heavily trafficked pathway. PJM Interconnection is the multistate company that manages power grids here, and fewer companies are producing power to supply to their grid. Sometimes those companies-oops! -just happen to overbid on supply contracts, meaning that even fewer producers are eligible to sign up to produce our power for a given year. Financial analysts say that this process gained about $150 million more for Exelon, the owner of BGE.

Environmental regulations are tightening the noose further: as coal plants shut down due to pollution regulation and to facing the low cost of natural gas-based power production, there are even fewer actors in the market, making Exelon's job of maximizing profit even easier.

Because emissions restrictions are part of the issue, one energy producer says that the reason we pay more is because we have "chosen a better air quality" for our citizens. Yeah, right: because pollution emitted upwind doesn't affect us, I guess? The regulations do matter, but they're also a convenient scapegoat.

The good news is that entrants appear to be on the way. Hopefully they are producing in the next few years, and the market can work its magic. Until then, keep your wallets out!

GMO Rice

According to this article, GMO's may be the only way we can continue to feed the planet. The piece begins by talking about flood resistant rice. A field in Uttar Pradesh, India, was planted with the genetically modified crop, and even though there were floods, "Instead of drowning, Mr Pal’s rice sprang back when the water receded. In a normal year he gets a tonne or so from his 1-hectare (2.5-acre) plot; in a bad year nothing. In that terrible flooded season, he harvested 4.5 tonnes—as good a yield as on any rain-fed paddy in the world." Pretty hard for me to look that guy in the eye and tell him these cultivars are somehow bad.

Sustainable shrimp farming

Nice to see some good news in the paper from time to time! Today's article features a Massachusetts shrimp farmer who is growing his product inside large tanks in a warehouse, sort of like the IMET in downtown Baltimore where they raise European Sea Bass. The shrimp are still eating fish meal, though they're trying to wean them off of it, but it's so much more sustainable to be raising them in tanks than fishing them to extinction. Costs are still a little high, but they're borderline competitive now and hopefully people can keep innovating to get things cheaper and cheaper. I'm not much of an entrepreneur, but this sure looks like a market opportunity.

Land animals

Neat graphic on xkcd showing the animals of the earth by total weight.

Climate Change issues: Meat and China's Coal

In his book "Just Food," James McWilliams takes down the myth of the importance of local food for slowing carbon emissions. There is a nice long list of objections, but in the end he chooses to focus on one: the importance of limiting meat consumption. The Washington Post took up that theme, noting that the average meat eater in the US contributes about twice as much to global warming as vegetarians (or fishitarians). Vegans are the best in this regard, coming in 60% below the meat eaters.

China right now is the #1 contributor to climate change, but only just barely larger than the US. That's projected to change, as the US is taking steps to curb pollution while China, as it industrializes, is on an upward swing, though the leaders at least say they're working against that. According to the news article linked to just there, emissions can be thought of as something like this:

Number of people X average income per person X energy used per unit income X CO2 per unit energy

The first one is limited by the one-child policy. No one wants to limit the second one. The third and fourth are more less measures of technical sophistication, and this is where there is a real chance to improve things. Hopefully the US and other OECD countries will share at least some of their technology with China to keep those ratios as low as possible. It will be hard for China to wean itself off of coal, a very cheap and abundant  but highly polluting source of energy.

India, #1 in shrimp

The US imports about $4-5 billion worth of shrimp every year, a mix of fresh, frozen, and prepared products. Most of it comes from southeast Asia, but some is from Latin America, and in particular Ecuador and Mexico (not shown).

(source data from the USDA's Economic Research Service)

As you can see, for a long time Thailand has been the biggest exporter of shrimp: they are blessed with a lot of mangrove coastline, and farming shrimp is extremely profitable, so naturally there are a lot of people in the business. Unfortunately, the business apparently isn't very well regulated: wastewater from one farm is often the intake water for the next farm downstream, so diseases like "early mortality syndrome" can sometimes run amuck, devastating the entire country's production. That's the cause of the drop in the graph above. Making matters worse, the NYT recently had a piece about slavery on board shrimp boats. (Shrimp are both farmed and wild caught in places.) With all the chaos in the Thai government these days, I doubt that regulations will soon clean up the industry.

Notice that others such as India are stepping into the gap. In 2008 and 2009, India produced just about $150 million worth of shrimp, but in 2013 they broke the $1 billion barrier, increasing exports to the US by a factor of six over just five years. It's definitely possible to have a cleaner production system: according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's "Seafood Watch" guide, the best choices for shrimp are from aquaculture done in North America. It is much less damaging of the environment, and I'd think that it's less likely to involve slavery as well. If Thailand reins in the human rights abuses, their costs will probably go up, giving India and others even more of an opening. A market that works is a good thing for everyone!

Food in America

Interesting graphic....