…by this Texan. Except that, as Dizzy Dean said, “It ain’t braggin’ eff you can do it.”

Via AEIdeas:

…about competition and private cost control.

The Saudis and their OPEC colleagues, at the start of the shale and fracking revolution last year, made an overt decision to keep their own production up, which would allow prices to drop (much of OPEC—especially Saudi Arabia—had lots of cash reserves with which to handle the drop), which would kill American deep drilling and put those competitors out of business, restoring price control to OPEC.

However.

The US shale industry is by necessity becoming more efficient than ever. Low oil prices have become an opportunity. The Saudis have lit a fire under producers to trim the fat, deploy new productivity-boosting technologies and zero in on the most productive geology.

Electricity producers in several states are asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support to keep costly nuclear power plants in business[.]

For instance,

New York and federal regulators are weighing whether to make customers subsidize the Ginna nuclear station in Ontario, NY, 20 miles northeast of Rochester.

And

Illinois is considering financial assistance for three Exelon nuclear plants that the company says are suffering from low power prices. State officials are considering several forms of aid, including legislation that would require utilities to support carbon-free generators like nuclear and renewable energy.

And