Environmental Bootleggers and Baptists Fleece Consumers

Originally published at RealClearEnergy

The “Bootleggers and Baptists” of Pennsylvania’s energy markets cost consumers and taxpayers billions while undermining the state’s economy and power grid.  

Bruce Yandle, an economist, coined the unlikely pairing to describe the whys of “protective regulatory cocoons” based on the prohibition of Sunday alcohol sales. The Baptists, write Yandle with coauthor Adam Smith, “enable accommodating politicians to say the action is the ‘right’ thing to do,” and the Bootleggers “laugh all the way to the bank.” 

In Pennsylvania today, two different—but equally unlikely—allies are coming together to advance energy regulation.  

Read more at RealClearEnergy