Writer. Thinker. Advocate. @southwestpolicy https://xitter.gq/t.co/lL8Cx7sEhG https://xitter.gq/t.co/WVtX1xxpnG
Joined February 2021
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Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
The Senate permitting bill answers a real problem. But states can already site regional power lines together: federal law consents to compacts among three or more neighbors. Congress could approve those in advance, rather than let FERC override a state. southwestpolicy.com/transmis…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
California's Prop 37 would put buyers of new homes into a second mortgage for up to 17% of the price, at a rate the ballot doesn't set. On an $800,000 home, that's up to $136,000 more debt. Easier credit doesn't make homes cheaper. More homes do. voterguide.sos.ca.gov/propos…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
rent freeze, meet lending freeze. Freddie Mac has paused new loans on NYC rent-stabilized buildings while it weighs the fallout, and Fannie now underwrites them for 4 to 8 years of flat rents, The City reports. Somebody still has to pay for the boiler. therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
More than half of Massachusetts land zoned for single-family homes requires nearly an acre per house, per the National Zoning Atlas. Tuesday's Question 7 would allow a home on 5,000 sq ft lots with sewer and water. Starter homes need small lots. zoningatlas.org/zoning-repor…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
ISO and the GHG Protocol said in Sept 2025 they would "harmonize their respective greenhouse gas standards and jointly develop new global rules."
@pmbrenner91 warns the framework "risks becoming embedded" in American regulatory systems.
southwestpolicy.com/the-carb…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
"More than 200 million bank accounts connect through Plaid alone," notes a 2025 white paper by @pmbrenner91 and Lucas J. Parker, arguing banks "must be permitted to recover the costs" of secure data transmission. The @CFPB's 2024 rule is enjoined (Nov 2026).
southwestpolicy.com/report-1…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
"'Incremental cost' has multiple meanings, and marginal cost is one of them."
After the Eighth Circuit's Oct. 26 debit-cap ruling, @pmbrenner91 argues the @federalreserve "should seek rehearing en banc."
southwestpolicy.com/incremen…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
A rule barring banks from charging for data access doesn't make the data free. "It sets the price at zero," @pmbrenner91 wrote in National Review (July 2026). His alternative: "Let banks and fintechs negotiate over the pipes."
southwestpolicy.com/theres-n…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
Shift 10% of big-truck freight to rail and you save 1.5 billion+ gallons of fuel a year, railroads told Congress. UP and NS project their merger takes 2.1 million truckloads a year off the road. It won't set diesel prices. It would burn less diesel. southwestpolicy.com/diesel-i…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
When an account is overdrawn, "the bank instantly extends unsecured credit with no collateral, no underwriting, and no repayment guarantee."
@pmbrenner91 in @thehill (Sept. 2025): "Risk and price are inextricably linked."
southwestpolicy.com/the-hill…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
The @NAIC reported $161.4 million in 2024 revenue, but its key-employee pay isn't public. Michigan law requires NAIC to report it there. A policy brief by @pmbrenner91 urges other states: "Enact a Michigan-style reporting statute."
southwestpolicy.com/regulati…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
Banks charged 22.36% on credit card accounts carrying a balance in August, per the Fed. A 10% cap, now backed in both parties, won't make that risk cheaper. Lenders will just stop taking it, starting with the borrowers a cap is sold as helping. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/T…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
Under a national 10% card rate cap, issuers "would tighten underwriting standards, slash credit limits, eliminate rewards programs, and close accounts," argues @pmbrenner91 in @rc_markets.
"Credit lines once withdrawn are not automatically restored."
southwestpolicy.com/real-cle…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
"Fifty states delegated their rule-making to an organization they supposedly own."
@pmbrenner91 in The Wall Street Journal on the @NAIC: "The deliberations happen in a room a state resident can't enter and produce a record he can't read."
southwestpolicy.com/how-did-…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
In the 1970s, an average home cost "about $26,300 against an annual household income of $9,870." By the latest data cited in 2025: income $83,730, average home $410,800.
@pmbrenner91 in The Wall Street Journal: "Subsidized debt drives up prices."
southwestpolicy.com/the-wall…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
More than 600,000 apartments came on the market in 2024, the most since 1986.
A new SPPI brief by @pmbrenner91 argues rent-pricing bans won't build homes. On the software: "Leave coordination to the antitrust laws."
southwestpolicy.com/rent-pri…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
Under the Truth in Lending Act's metric, "the slower a short-term borrower pays, the cheaper his loan appears."
From SPPI White Paper No. 14 by Evan Chang and @pmbrenner91 (Oct. 2026):
southwestpolicy.com/the-mora…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
Mortgage credit checks pull three bureau reports. In one study of 245 million consumers, 35% had a score 10+ points off their three-score median. Greg Schroeder and Anna Gonzalez: keep tri-merge the default until a cheaper option is tested in public. southwestpolicy.com/tri-merg…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
Railroads can move a ton of freight close to 500 miles on a gallon of fuel (AAR).
@pmbrenner91 in DC Journal: the Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger, before the STB as of Oct. 29, could make the next diesel price spike less painful.
southwestpolicy.com/diesel-i…
Patrick M. Brenner retweeted
Utilities spent 1.7 times as much a year on transmission in 2017–2023 as in 2004–2016, yet capacity grew half as fast.
@pmbrenner91 argues that's no reason to move siting from the states to FERC, as S. 5653 (in Senate committee as of Oct. 29) would.
southwestpolicy.com/transmis…