Law Commons^™

Grid Governance In The Energy-Trilemma Era: Remedying The Democracy Deficit, Daniel E. Walters, Andrew N. Kleit

Faculty Scholarship

Transforming the electric power grid is central to any viable scenario for addressing global climate change, but the process and politics of this transformation are complex. The desire to transform the grid creates an “energy trilemma” involving often conflicting desires for reliability, cost, and decarbonization; and, at least in the short run, it is difficult to avoid making tradeoffs between these different goals. It is somewhat shocking, then, that many crucial decisions about electric power service in the United States are made not by consumers or their utilities, nor by state public utilities commissions or federal regulators. Instead, for much …

Authority For Municipal Resilient Road Infrastructure Funding Strategies In Rhode Island, Jimmy Smith, Read Porter

Sea Grant Law Fellow Publications

No abstract provided.

The New Nuclear? Small Modular Reactors And The Future Of Nuclear Power, Bruce Huber

Journal Articles

Nuclear power has struggled against severe economic headwinds, but some believe that small modular reactors (SMRs) may save the industry from its current woes. This article begins by explaining the regulatory and economic structure of the electricity sector in the United States. It then describes the current plight of the nuclear power industry before examining SMRs in particular—how they differ from conventional nuclear reactors, what regulatory issues they will confront, and what factors will most directly shape their long-term potential.

Quantifying The Resilience Value Of Distributed Energy Resources, James M. Van Nostrand

Law Faculty Scholarship

Extreme weather events, which are occurring with increasing frequency as a result of climate change, threaten the reliability and resilience of the nation's electricity grid. Increased flooding due to intense rainfall, hurricane damage fueled in part by a warmer atmosphere and warmer, higher seas, and widespread wildfires caused by extended drought conditions constitute potential hazards for utility infrastructure and delivery of essential electricity service. As a possible adaptation strategy, increased deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs), which are small-scale generating resources located near-and connected to-a load being served with or without grid interconnection, can improve the resilience of the electric …

Grid Modernization And Energy Poverty, Shelley Welton

Faculty Publications

Grid modernization holds the alluring promise of rationalizing electricity pricing, saving consumers money, and improving environmental quality all at the same time. Yet, we have seen only limited and patchwork regulatory initiatives towards significant grid modernization in the United States. Outside of a few leading states, state energy regulators appear loath to embrace fullthroated versions of the project. This article argues that the underdiscussed problem of energy poverty in the United States is a critical contributing factor in the gap between grid modernization’s possibilities and our regulatory reality. Only by explicitly understanding how the issues of grid modernization and energy …

Grid Modernization And Energy Poverty, Shelley Welton

All Faculty Scholarship

Grid modernization holds the alluring promise of rationalizing electricity pricing, saving consumers money, and improving environmental quality all at the same time. Yet, we have seen only limited and patchwork regulatory initiatives towards significant grid modernization in the United States. Outside of a few leading states, state energy regulators appear loath to embrace full-throated versions of the project. This article argues that the under-discussed problem of energy poverty in the United States is a critical contributing factor in the gap between grid modernization’s possibilities and our regulatory reality. Only by explicitly understanding how the issues of grid modernization and energy …

Pace Energy And Climate Center 2015 Annual Report, Pace Energy & Climate Center

Environmental Law Program Publications @ Haub Law

In 2015, Pace Energy and Climate Center continued a 27-year tradition of successfully advancing clean energy policies and solutions in communities across the State of New York and the Northeast region, across the United States, and around the world. As a unique organization that operates at the boundaries between law, policy, business, and regulation, we continue to bring innovative thinking, strong analysis, technological understanding, and stakeholder engagement to the vital climate and energy challenges facing us today.

We have been pleased to become a key player in the New York Public Service Commission’s Reforming the Energy Vision (“REV”) initiative. REV …

Newsroom: Freedman On Credit Reports 02-12-2016, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Transmission And Transport Of Energy In The Western U.S. And Canada: A Law And Policy Road Map, K. K. Duvivier, Nate Larsen, Nick Lawton, Sam Kalen, Stephen R. Miller, Melissa Powers, Tara Kathleen Righetti, Troy A. Rule, Amelia Schlusser

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This collection of short essays arose from the inaugural meeting of the Idaho Symposium on Energy in the West, which was held in November, 2014. The topic for this first Symposium was Transmission and Transport of Energy in the Western U.S. and Canada: A Law and Policy Road Map. The essays in this collection provide a notable introduction to the major energy issues facing the West today. Topics include: building a resilient legal architecture for western energy production; natural gas flaring; transmission planning for wind energy; utilities and rooftop solar; special considerations for western states and the Clean Power Plan; …

Put Your Money Where Your Water Is: Building Resilience Through Rates, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Articles

Utilities are challenged with the task of meeting future water demands while generating revenue through the use of the resource. Customarily, utilities base demand projections on subsequent use and calculate price on past consumption. The traditional model of extrapolating cost, based on past consumption, does not allow the utility flexibility to protect the resource in times of crisis. In recent years, water resources have been taxed by population increases and changes in weather patterns. Utilities encourage the use of water at low fees and are unable to conserve during times when the resource is available and cheap. This ineffective rate …

Ferc’S Expansive Authority To Transform The Electric Grid, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

Using an unprecedented historical analysis of over 100 years of law dating to the Progressive Era, this Article concludes that the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) v. Electric Power Supply Association properly asserted that FERC has ample authority to pursue broad environmental and energy goals in transforming the electric grid. Building on the Court’s finding that FERC may regulate “practices” that “directly affect” rates in wholesale electricity markets, the analysis develops a detailed standard that is consistent with interpretation of regulatory statutes in each of three distinct eras: the Progressive Era, the era of regulation …

Demand Response And Market Power, Bruce R. Huber

Journal Articles

In her article, Bypassing Federalism and the Administrative Law of Negawatts, Sharon Jacobs educates her readers about the concept of demand response, and then describes its propagation in recent years while making the broader argument that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) — the federal government’s principal energy regulator — has engaged in a strategy of “bypassing federalism” that may entail more costs than benefits. Professor Jacobs is right to call attention to demand response and to FERC’s approach to matters of jurisdictional doubt. While I share many of her concerns about boundary lines in a federal system, I argue …

Traditionally-Structured Electric Utilities In A Distributed Generation World, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article argues that the twenty-first century challenge to the electric industry is different in kind from previous challenges. Further, past responses to past challenges are inadequate to meet the convergence of demands posed on investor owned electric utilities by new technologies, new markets, and new regulations. Instead, the twenty-first century challenge requires a dramatic new response as electric utilities face a new economic order and as they seek revenue protection and assurances of financial stability from their regulators.

This article will first explore current industry characteristics and challenges in Part II. Part III will then discuss the current situation …

Smart Regulation And Federalism For The Smart Grid, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines the “Smart Grid,” a set of concepts, technologies, and operating practices that may transform America’s electric grid as much as the Internet has done, redefining every aspect of electricity generation, distribution, and use. While the Smart Grid’s promise is great, this Article examines numerous key barriers to its development, including early stage resistance, a lack of incentives for consumers, and the adverse impacts of the federal-state tension in energy regulation. Overcoming these barriers requires both new technologies and transformative regulatory change, beginning with the development of a foundation of interoperability standards (rules of the road governing interactions …

At A Crossroads In The Charm City: Northern Central, United Railways And Power Politics At The Dawn Of Twentieth Century Baltimore - Northern Central Rr Co. V. United Railways & Electrinc Co. 105 Md. 345, Andrew R. Mccarty, David S. Warner

Legal History Publications

In June 1905, attorneys for the Northern Central Railway Company filed suit in Baltimore Superior Court against the United Railways and Electric Company. The suit charged that United Railways owed Northern Central for a portion of the expenses incurred by Northern to repair two bridges in the City of Baltimore, Maryland. Northern Central’s railroad lines ran under the bridges and United Railways’ streetcar lines ran across them. The amount claimed was relatively small for a company the size of the Northern Central and the possibility of collecting somewhat remote even if the case were decided in its favor. However, the …

Slides: The Yampa: New Rules For An Old River, Jerd Smith

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Jerd Smith, Reporter, Rocky Mountain News

11 slides

If Ethanol Is The Answer, What Is The Question, Peter Z. Grossman

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

Since 2005, in the face of rising oil and gasoline prices, many Americans have looked to plant-based fuels, particularly ethanol, as the "answer" to our energy dilemmas. Section III examines the issues connected specifically to ethanol, how market forces as well as government subsidies have worked to make corn-based ethanol economically viable at times, why that viability has been lost in recent months even with subsidies, and further, why ethanol from corn on the scale the legislation demands is impractical. Clearly it would be technically possible to produce the mandated 15 billion gallons of ethanol, and distilling capacity will nearly …

Excessive Speculation In The Natural Gas Market, Michael Greenberger

Congressional Testimony

No abstract provided.

Lessons From Enron: An Oversight Hearing On Gas Prices And Energy Trading, Michael Greenberger

Congressional Testimony

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Reform Of Electricity Markets, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Rethinking Reform starts with a thought experiment about the complete deregulation of electricity markets. The article goes on to discuss how the traditional model of utility regulation has served its useful purpose and must be replaced. The two recommendations made in the article include the use of marginal cost pricing and an array of smart energy technologies to create a better and more efficient energy policy.

The Past And Future Of Electricity Regulation, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Electric industry restructuring has been an activity not free from difficulties. The California energy crisis of the summer of 2000, the world crisis after September 11, as well as the implosion of Enron have raised questions about the future of electricity restructuring. As a policy matter, the move to reduce command-and-control regulation of the electric industry and to promote competition enjoys widespread support. The industry, however, is not one that can be totally deregulated. This Article argues that the California and Enron crises may slow restructuring, but restructuring should continue as a matter of sound industrial policy. In addition, the …

Networkindustries.Gov.Reg, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This essay is part of a Symposium entitled "American Regulatory Policy: Have We Found A Third Way?" The paper looks at the changes in the regulation of what were once called public utilities and are now called network industries. Traditional regulation is described and compared with the current form and structure of the regulation of these industries. The paper makes the argument that, even though deregulation is occurring consistent with Third Way thinking, it is occurring not only because of changes in world global economic views. Rather, it is changing because of what traditional regulation has accomplished.

Traditional regulation constructed …

Landscape Scale Habitat Conservation Plans: The California Experience, Lindell L. Marsh

Biodiversity Protection: Implementation and Reform of the Endangered Species Act (Summer Conference, June 9-12)

24 pages.

Contains 3 pages of references.

Immunity From Regulatory Price Squeeze Claims: From Keogh, Parker, And Noerr To Town Of Concord And Beyond, Keith A. Rowley

Scholarly Works

On September 21, 1990, the First Circuit handed down its decision in Town of Concord, Massachusetts v. Boston Edison Co. This case, the most recent in a growing line of court of appeals decisions examining the antitrust implications of public utility rate structures, represents the first time a United States court of appeals has unequivocally stated that an antitrust action based upon a “price squeeze” could not be maintained against a utility whose wholesale and retail rates were both fully regulated. Town of Concord notwithstanding, the courts are far from agreeing whether investor-owned electric or natural gas utilities are immune …

Automatic Fuel Adjustment Clauses: Time For A Hearing, Marshall A. Leaffer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Through automatic fuel adjustment clauses, utilities in most states are permitted automatically to pass through to customers any increase in fuel costs, thereby circumventing a general rate hearing before a public utilities commission where the validity of any such rate increase could be publicly examined In this Article the author discusses the benefits and detriments of the automatic fuel adjustment clause, using the clause that existed in Ohio until quite recently as an example. He concludes that such a rate increase without a hearing can no longer be justified on the basis of uncontrollable fuel costs. Instead he advocates adoption …

The Legislative Evolution Of Title I Of The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act Of 1978: The Study In Compromise, James M. Van Nostrand

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Allocation Of Scarce Goods Under Section 2-615 Of The Uniform Commercial Code: A Comparison Of Some Rival Models, James J. White

Articles

Section 2-615 of the Uniform Commercial Code authorizes a contract seller to allocate goods in short supply when full performance has become commercially impracticable. Most of the cases under and commentary on that section have focused on the issue of commercial impracticability. The allocation aspects of the section have attracted much more modest attention in the cases and in the scholarly journals. The purpose of this article is to examine critically the allocation rule set out in section 2-615(b). That subsection authorizes a seller, upon a finding of commercial impracticability, to allocate "in any manner which is fair and reasonable." …

Natural Gas And Electric Utility Rate Reform: Taxation Through Ratemaking, Alfred C. Aman, Glen S. Howard

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Public Utilities—Franchise Rates As Affected By The World War, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

The economic convulsions due to the World War are abundantly reflected in the relations between the public and their public utilities operating under franchises fixing rates for service. The enormous rise in cost of labor and materials has, in many cases, so reduced the net income of such utilities as to make it a negative quantity at existing franchise rates. The utilities are crying to be saved from bankruptcy, but the unfortunate suspicion bred by past dealings of many such companies has made the public skeptical, and perhaps in many cases entirely unreasonable. In some cases plain selfishness may explain …

Public Utility Valuation - Cost Of Reproduction Theory And The World War, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

The very grave objections to the cost-of-reproduction theory of valuation of public utilities was pointed out at large in 15 MICH. L. REV. 205. The violent price changes following the World War have greatly increased the weight of these objections to calling anything a base which rests on such uncertainties and fluctuations as cost-of-reproduction. A base should be stable, but this has the stability Of a flying machine. There had been a rising curve of costs from 1893 to 1916, but since that date the rise has been almost vertical. The public utilities by- the thousands desire to take advantage …