The provision of water services
The Irish Times ran a series on water services in Ireland. The first article is perhaps the most interesting. It leaks the yet-to-be-published report on the water sector by PWC. PWC will apparently be...
View ArticleErratum: An fliuch mor
I recently wrote that Dublin does not use MapAlerter, a nifty internet service that allows county councils to alert people in particular areas by SMS, Email, Twitter, RSS. I was wrong. Dublin does use...
View ArticleGreen growth
Sean and I have an article on green growth at Vox. It builds on a paper recently published in the Energy Journal. Research funded by the EPA.
View ArticleRevealed preferences for climate
Eight academic economists have left Dublin in recent months or will leave shortly. That may seem like a small number, but there are only 200 or so academic economists in the country. They all have...
View ArticleCOP17 in Durban
Today, the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) starts in Durban, South Africa. Unlike the summit of 2009 in Copenhagen,...
View ArticleReform of household energy policy
Minister Rabbitte for Energy sketches several reforms of household energy policy in today’s Irish Times. These are plans for the longer term. There are a range of fuel allowances. Some are...
View ArticleEnvironment news roundup
With all eyes on the euro, the budget, the Middle East, some remarkable, smaller stories emerged. Irish roads are now among the safest in the OECD. I guess the main reason is that much traffic has...
View ArticleGormanston, Tarbert and regulation
The Examiner has a story on the proposed LNG terminal at Tarbert in the Shannon estuary. This is a privately funded project and a welcome stimulus for North Kerry. As long as the developers play within...
View ArticleDurban: Jobs and climate
The UNFCCC Job Creation Program once more demonstrated its awesome force. Some 20,000 people met in Durban for 2 weeks. If you add travel, preparation and debriefing, that is easily 1,000 person-years....
View ArticleMcDonald in Nature
The Environment Editor of the Irish Times, Frank McDonald, has written in Nature. It is interesting to compare some of the notions of journalistic neutrality (Wikipedia and Irish Times; Nature‘s...
View ArticleTowards Irish Water
The public consultation on the establishment of Irish Water opened today. See here and here. As I’ve argued before, charging for water and waste water is right and proper; and doing so through a...
View ArticleSeptic tanks
Minister Hogan appears to have waived the septic tank registration fee. That is fair and proper. The sewage bill in cities and towns is picked up by the taxpayer too. Either everyone poos for free, or...
View ArticleWater meters and all that
Ireland is not Greece. Ireland, for instance, does not have a problem with tax collection. Or does it? There clearly is a problem with collecting the household charge. To my mind, the core issue is...
View ArticleWater meters (ctd)
Would you rather arrange for a water meter yourself and pay 150 euro up front; or have Irish Water install a meter for you, get a loan from the National Pension Reserve Fund, and pay 780 euro over 20...
View ArticleYet more on water meters
Prime Time last night showed a few clips of me commenting on the establishment of Irish Water. As is usual (given the time constraints) a lot of my interview was not included. There are a few points...
View ArticleESRI Environmental Economics Seminar
Venue: The ESRI, Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2 Date: 03/05/2012 Time: 9.00 -13.00 This seminar will present some of the latest research undertaken by ESRI researchers as part of...
View ArticleIrish Water (again)
I had an op-ed in yesterday’s Business Post, together with a raft of other pieces. The points raised should come as no surprise to those who read Morgenroth’s and my earlier blogs. Conor Pope...
View ArticleThe hidden depths of the water charge
as submitted to the Sunday Business Post: In a somewhat haphazard style, the government this week announced more details of its reform of the water sector. Unfortunately, the plans are about as...
View ArticlePat Swords v The World
The UN-ECE Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention has now ruled in the case Pat Swords v European Union. The ruling has implications far beyond this case. To recap, Pat is no friend of renewable...
View ArticleExporting electricity
UPDATE2 Over on Twitter, Antoin argues that the plan as interpreted by me would violate EirGrid’s statutory monopoly. Minister Rabbite yesterday announced plans to export wind power to Great Britain....
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