Law Commons^™

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 …

Constitutional Challenges And Regulatory Opportunities For State Climate Policy Innovation, Felix Mormann

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores constitutional limits and regulatory openings for innovative state policies to mitigate climate change by promoting climate-friendly, renewable energy. In the absence of a comprehensive federal policy approach to climate change and clean energy, more and more states are stepping in to fill the policy void. Already, nearly thirty states have adopted renewable portfolio standards that create markets for solar, wind, and other clean electricity. To help populate these markets, a few pioneering states have recently started using feed-in tariffs that offer eligible generators above-market rates for their clean, renewable power.

But renewable portfolio standards, feed-in tariffs, and …

Transition Support Mechanisms For Communities Facing Full Or Partial Coal Power Plant Retirement In New York, Lisa Anne Hamilton, Radina Valova, Karl R. Rábago

Environmental Law Program Publications @ Haub Law

New York State is undergoing a rapid and unprecedented energy transformation, particularly in the electricity sector. As new resources and technologies emerge to meet the demands of 21st century life, regulators must balance the need for cost effective and equitable participation in wholesale power markets while maintaining reliability on the grid. Furthermore, it is critical that all New Yorkers participate fully in the promise of a revitalized and equitable energy future. Such a transformation requires that the needs of all communities are factored into the polices and regulations that move New York toward the bold goals set forth under its …

Stranded Costs And Grid Decarbonization, Jim Rossi, Emily Hammond

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Over the past half century, energy law has endured many stranded cost experiments, each helping firms and customers adjust to a new normal. However, these past experiments have contributed to a myopic regulatory approach to past stranded cost recovery by: (1) endorsing a preference for addressing all stranded costs only after energy resource investment decisions have been made; and (2) fixating on the firm’s financial costs and protection of investors, rather than on the broader impacts of each on the energy system.

The current transition to decarbonization is already giving rise to stranded cost claims related to existing energy assets …

Dual Electricity Federalism Is Dead, But How Dead And What Replaces It?, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court decided three cases in the past year involving the split of jurisdiction between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the states in the energy sector: FERC v. Electric Power Supply Association, Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing and ONEOK v. Learjet. This Article concludes that these watershed decisions herald a new approach to governing the rapid evolution of the modern electric grid. Discussing the decisions, the analysis demonstrates that they mark the end of “dual federalism” in electricity law that treated federal and state regulators as operating within separate and distinct spheres of authority, and proposes that …

Climate Regulation Of The Electricity Industry: A Comparative View From Australia, Great Britain, South Korea, And The United States, Lincoln L. Davies, Penelope Crossley, Peter Connor, Siwon Park, Shelby Shaw-Hughes

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Climate regulation of the electricity sector is one of the most important growing — and rapidly changing — areas of law and policy today. This is both because of the critical role that electricity plays in modern society, acting as economic lifeblood, and because of electricity’s part in driving climate change, accounting for more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally than any other activity. This article provides an introduction to different methods of regulating climate emissions from the electricity sector. It does so through detailed, comparative accounts of climate regulation of electricity in four different jurisdictions: Australia, Great Britain, South Korea, …