Law Commons^™

Affordable Renewables - Unjust And Unreasonable?, Grace Brosofsky

Cornell Law Review

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)-an independent agency tasked with ensuring 'just and reasonable" energy rates-has begun to use energy market payment systems to prop up fossil fuels. FERC has issued orders that prevent renewables from competing with fossil fuels by forcing renewables to bid into energy markets at artificially high rates. FERC has argued that state clean energy subsidies distort energy markets by "suppressing prices" and pushing "needed" fossil fuel generators out of the market. According to FERC, a federal intervention is necessary to protect "market integrity" and ensure that consumers can access reliable electricity.

This Note argues that …

Energy Exactions, Jim Rossi, Christopher Serkin

Cornell Law Review

Exactions are demands levied on residential or commercial developers to force them, rather than a municipality, to bear the costs of new infrastructure. Local governments commonly use them to address the burdens that growth places on schools, transportation, water, and sewers. But exactions almost never address energy needs, even though local land use decisions can create signficant externalities for the power grid and for energy resources. This Article proposes a novel reform to land use and energy law: "energy exactions"-understood as local fees or timing limits aimed at addressing the energy impacts of new residential or commercial development. Energy exactions …