Free Market Electricity Again (Giberson/Kiesling just don’t want to go there)

“A free market in electricity is not ‘utopian’ or problematic. It is practical and timely with a strong intellectual case. It just needs classical liberal champions rather than technocratic schemers.”

“I will not dance to your tune” proclaimed technocrat Lynne Kiesling in our exchanges on electricity policy last year. A free market in electricity is “utopian,” she added in another exchange. All this in the service of a centrally planned wholesale market imbued with government-enabled wind, solar, and batteries (Kiesling’s VPP–‘virtual power plant‘). And an implicit preference for climate alarmism/forced energy transformation from an academic that pretends to be free market but is a woman of system.

Giberson Exchange

And so once again, I debated just this with Michael Giberson (Kiesling’s designated one-off voice in a peculiar relationship). [1] It began with this general comment on the policies of the Trump Administration on social media (Robert Lawson, Facebook: July 16, 2025)

This TDS-light comment (fixated on the negatives), followed by a bold prediction of impending electoral rejection/reversal, prompted me to reply:

Radical stuff Mike…. Why not with electricity to reject the Kiesling technocrat model of centrally planned wholesale power markets; contrived retail competition; and wind/solar/battery ‘distributed generation’ or ‘virtual power plants’?

Giberson: “The retail competition available to a few million consumers in Texas is light years more worth of liberty and freedom than is available to the other 260 million American electric consumers. Why not work on helping that 260 million get a little more freedom?”

Bradley: “First, define what a free market is in electricity i(Lynne refuses to do that). Second, what is retail competition based on a centrally planned wholesale market? Political economy 101 differentiates between Statism and a free market in all sectors, including electricity.”

Giberson: “I’m happy to work for ‘vastly more freedom in my lifetime.’ Not opposed to refining utopian ideals, just prefer to push advancement on the margins today. I know you want to identify the ideal, and that’s helpful. But having 2 choices is better than having no choice—I don’t need to know what utopia looks like to know 2 choices are better than none—and in parts of Texas you have 60 choices. Sixty also better than none.”

Bradley: “The free market is Utopian? Central planning is ‘advancement in the margins’? The fact that you and Lynne refuse to even explore a real free market in electricity after decades is peculiar. There is clear evidence of ‘the ‘knowledge problem’ and public choice issues with RTOs that beg for a journal article. Why not write it up for us?”

Final Comment

At this point Giberson disappeared. Predictably. There is refusal to think about removing public utility regulation (franchise protection, rate caps) and removing mandatory open access and other requirements under the Federal Power Act and state-level regulation. A refusal to allow a market discovery process to ensue to determine competition and efficiency.

Information technology allows low-cost consumer organization to bargain against a single provider in a control area. Competition in such instances could be between third-party negotiators between the customer and the utility. Or it could be ….

All this, too, demotes government in electricity, very timely with the loss of government subsidies for the ‘unreliables’–wind and solar in particular. Battery storage–a third leg in the ‘virtual power plant’ is also on the ropes without government subsidization.

A free market in electricity is not ‘utopian’ or problematic. It is practical and timely with a strong intellectual case. It just needs classical liberal champions rather than technocratic schemers.

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[1] Giberson practices ‘crony intellectualism’ with Kiesling by refusing to part with her on any major political economy position with electricity. Kiesling herself works a charm offensive by trying to be all things to all people. Her recent power primer for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the subject of a future post, included 17 other authors to ‘buy in’ to her grand synthesis of statism and economic efficiency.

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Source: https://www.masterresource.org/kiesling-lynne/free-market-electricity-again-giberson-kiesling-dont-go-there/