Gasoline Market Price Failure | Annual Gasoline Consumption

Annual Gasoline Consumption
There are many possible reasons for suspecting market failure in a product like gasoline. Throughout the world, the exploration, refining, and selling of petroleum products has long been controlled by large firms in oligopolistic or monopolized national markets. The United States is a sufficiently large importer of oil that it could have monopsony power, which would mean that we could increase the welfare of our own citizens by reducing our imports. Moreover, the consumption of petroleum products, especially in motor vehicles, generates many negative external costs, and will begin to examine closely in the next chapter. Where there are negative externalities, a free market will overproduce and over consume. (more…)

Some Major Alternative Energy Sources

alternative energy sources
Some of alternative fuel sources are by no means new. For centuries people have harnessed the power of running water for a variety of needs, particularly for agriculture or farming. Water wheels were constructed in the Middle East, Greece, and China thousands of years ago, and they were common fixtures on the farms of Europe by the Middle Ages. In the early 21st century hydroelectric dam, which generate electricity from the power of rivers, provide about 9 % of the electricity in the United States. Worldwide, there are about 40,000 such dams. (more…)