Energy and Utilities Law Commons^™

Regulation And The Geography Of Inequality, Ganesh Sitaraman, Christopher Serkin, Morgan Ricks

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

We live in an era of widening geographic inequality. Around the country, the spread between economically and culturally thriving places and those that are struggling has been increasing. "Superstar" cities like New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Atlanta continue to attract talent and grow, while the economies of other cities and rural areas are left behind. Troublingly, escalating geographic inequality in the United States has arrived hand in hand with serious economic, social, and political problems. Areas that are left behind have not only failed to keep up with their thriving peers; in many ways, they have stagnated and seen …

Zombie Energy Laws, Joshua C. Macey

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article traces the development of three legal rules—cost recovery for vertically integrated utilities, the requirement that regulators assess the financial viability of energy projects before issuing a certificate of public convenience and necessity, and the filed rate doctrine—that emerged out of the view that electric power companies should be shielded from market forces. It argues that important elements of these legal rules have become “zombie energy laws.” Zombie energy laws are statutes, regulations, and judicial precedents that continue to apply after their underlying economic and legal bases dissipate. Zombie energy laws were originally designed to protect consumers by, among …

Transmission Siting In Deregulated Wholesale Power Markets: Re-Imagining The Role Of Courts In Resolving Federal-State Siting Impasses, Jim Rossi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

During most of the twentieth century, state and local regulatory bodies coordinated the siting or power plants and transmission lines. These bodies focused on two important issues: 1) the determination of need, so as to avoid unnecessary economic duplication of costly infrastructure; and 2) environmental protection, so as to provide local land use and other environmental concerns input on the placement of necessary generation and transmission facilities. With the rise of a deregulated wholesale power market, the issue of need is increasingly determined by the market, not regulators. Environmental concerns with siting, however, frequently remain contested - especially locally - …

From Smokestack To Suv: The Individual As Regulated Entity In The New Era Of Environmental Law, Michael P. Vandenbergh

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

A debate between advocates of command and control regulation and advocates of economic incentives has dominated environmental legal scholarship over the last three decades. Both sides in the debate implicitly embrace the premise that regulatory measures should be directed almost exclusively at large industrial polluters. This Article asserts that for many pollutants the premise is no longer supportable, and that much of the focus of regulation in the future should turn to individuals and households. Examining a wide range of empirical data, the Article presents the first profile of individual behavior as a source of pollution. The profile demonstrates that …

Radiation Protection Regulation: An Opportunity For Cooperative Federalism, Robert L. Hamilton, William A.W. Krebs, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of this article is to explore the question of how governmental responsibility for regulation of radiation hazards associated with atomic energy activities may best be allocated between the federal government and the states. While division of such responsibility is theoretically not essential--it being legally conceivable that the federal government could shoulder the entire responsibility alone or could leave it entirely to the states--various factors which will be mentioned below appear to make some sort of division of responsibility a practical necessity. To explore this question of division of responsibility, we shall first review the nature of radiation and …

Atomic Energy And The Law: A Bibliography, Eileen M. Murphy

Vanderbilt Law Review

To compile a bibliography, it is a prerequisite that one be a lover of books. It is hoped that this paper will be of assistance to those in need and secondarily, that it might possibly open the world of the bibliophile to many others and give Brooklyn a little competition. Atomic energy is a fascinating field for the bibliographer; the surface has yet to be scratched. The work presented is divided into seven sections:

I. Atomic Energy Legislation, 1946-1958.

II. Publications of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, 1945/46-1958.

III. Books. (Annotated.)

IV. Periodicals-U. S. and Foreign. (Annotated.)

V. Selected …