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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Energy Prosumer, Sharon B. Jacobs
The Energy Prosumer, Sharon B. Jacobs
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Decentralization is becoming a dominant trend in many industries, and the electricity industry is no exception. Increasing numbers of energy consumers generate their own electricity and/or provide essential grid services such as storage, efficiency, and demand response. This Article offers a positive account of the emergence of these new energy actors, which it calls "energy prosumers. " It then frames several doctrinal and procedural puzzles that prosumers create, including jurisdictional puzzles, distributional concerns, and democratic challenges. Ultimately, it concludes that prosumers can be a positive disruptive force in the electricity industry if courts and regulators can manage these challenges effectively. …
Bypassing Federalism And The Administrative Law Of Negawatts, Sharon B. Jacobs
Bypassing Federalism And The Administrative Law Of Negawatts, Sharon B. Jacobs
Publications
Presidential unilateralism has become a defining feature of the executive branch. But a related and equally important phenomenon has been largely ignored: federal agency efforts to circumvent statutory federalism boundaries. This move, which the Article calls "bypassing federalism, " involves using existing jurisdictional authority to work defacto, rather than dejure, reallocations of power. The Article explores agency bypassing through the lens of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's ("FERC's") promotion of demand response in electricity markets. Demand response refers to customer sales of negative watts, or "negawatts," back to the electrical grid. FERC, eager to promote demand-side management programs but stymied …