Energy and Utilities Law Commons^™

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

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 …

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Energy Competition: From Commodity To Boutique & Back, James W. Coleman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Energy products such as power, gas, and oil have long been the world’s premier commodities. Consumers demand that power and fuel are available when they want it and they prefer to pay less for it. Few know or care where their fuel or power comes from. So for years energy companies believed that efforts to differentiate their products were mostly ineffective — they were re-signed to compete on price in fierce global commodity markets. But in recent years, a new focus on regulating how energy commodities are produced has begun to splinter previously integrated energy markets, creating markets for boutique …

Market Power In Power Markets: The Filed-Rate Doctrine And Competition In Electricity, Sandeep Vaheesan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

State and federal initiatives have opened the American electric power industry to competition over the past four decades. Although the process has not occurred uniformly across the country, wholesale electricity markets exist everywhere today. Independent power producers can construct generation facilities and sell their output to utilities and industrial customers through bilateral contracts. In many regions, centralized power markets now facilitate the sale of billions of dollars in electricity annually through auctions. Although market forces have replaced direct price regulation in electricity, antitrust enforcement has not expanded its role commensurately. A lack of competition has been a serious problem in …

The Trojan Horse Of Electric Power Transmission Line Siting Authority, Jim A. Rossi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Reform proposals pending in the U.S. Congress would increase federal and regional power to preempt states in siting transmission lines on order to allow the development of a high-voltage transmission grid for renewable resources. This Article recognizes the inadequacy of existing state siting authority over transmission, but takes a skeptical approach to expanding federal siting jurisdiction as a solution to the problem and argues that the over-attention to transmission line siting authority is a bit of a Trojan horse in the climate change debate. Specifically, because it ignores the more difficult issues of how the costs and benefits of transmission …

Bargaining In The Shadow Of Rate-Setting Courts, Daniel A. Crane

Articles

Judges will tell you that they are comparatively poor rate regulators. The specialized, technical competence and supervisory capacity that public utilities commissions enjoy are usually absent from judicial chambers. Nonetheless, when granting antitrust remedies-particularly remedies for monopolistic abuse of intellectual property-courts sometimes purport to act as rate regulators for the licensing or sale of the defendant's assets. At the outset, we should distinguish between two forms ofjudicial rate setting. In one form, a court (or the FTC in its adjudicative capacity) grants a compulsory license and sets a specific rate as part of a final judgment or an order. The …

Antitrust Process And Vertical Deference: Judicial Review Of State Regulatory Inaction, Jim Rossi

ExpressO

Courts struggle with the tension between national competition laws, on the one hand, and state and local regulation, on the other – especially as traditional governmental functions are privatized and as economic regulation advances beyond its traditional role to address market monitoring. This Article defends a process-based account of the state action antitrust exception against alternative interpretations, such as the substantive efficiency preemption approach recently advanced by Richard Squire, and elaborates on what such a process-based account would entail for courts addressing the role of state economic regulation as a defense in antitrust cases. It recasts the debate as focused …

Using Ethanol As A Fuel To Reenergize Free Trade Area Of The Americas Negotiations, Marcel De Armas

ExpressO

Currently the United States imposes a 2.5 percent ad valorem tax along with a 14.27 cents per liter tax on imported ethanol from countries with normal trade relations under the harmonized tariff schedule. However, the United States exempts many countries from this tariff or reduces the tariff under various free trade agreements or initiatives. The issues that resulted in Doha’s failure also caused FTAA negotiations to temporarily stall since both Brazil and the United States wanted certain FTAA issues negotiated at the WTO level. The United States could initiate this process with a discussion of reducing or eliminating its ethanol …

Methanex V. United States: The Realignment Of Nafta Chapter 11 With Environmental Regulation, Kara Dougherty

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In July 1999, the Canadian firm Methanex Corporation ("Methanex") notified the United States of its intention to seek approximately $1 billion in damages for the United States's alleged breach of Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement ("NAFTA"). NAFTA, a trilateral agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico (the "Parties"), gives private, foreign investors from each country the right to bring claims against another Party under certain circumstances. Methanex claimed a California measure banning the use of the gasoline additive MTBE discriminated against and expropriated its investments. The case of Methanex v. United States highlights two unintended …

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

State Action Antitrust Exemption Collides With Deregulation: Rehabilitating The Foreseeability Doctrine, Elizabeth Trujillo

Faculty Scholarship

The state action antitrust exemption, also known as the state action immunity doctrine, is used by antitrust defendants to shield themselves against antitrust liability in instances where their anticompetitive conduct, if not under the aegis of state policy, would have been deemed a violation of federal antitrust law. Under the Midcal test, a court may grant state action immunity to a defendant if it is proven that the alleged anticompetitive conduct is pursuant to a clearly-articulated state policy and has been actively supervised by the state.

This paper evaluates the role, function, and definition of the state action exemption in …

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Collaborative Governance In The Restructured Electricity Industry, Charles H. Koch Jr.

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Energy Goods: Should Article 2 Of The Uniform Commercial Code Apply To Energy Sales In A Deregulated Environment, 37 J. Marshall L. Rev. 281 (2003), Koby Bailey

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Electrical Deregulation Fiasco: Looking To Regulatory Federalism To Promote A Balance Between Markets And The Provision Of Public Goods, Jim Rossi

Michigan Law Review

Over the last thirty years, regulators have deregulated just about every regulated industry. In no industry has deregulation raised as much fear and concern as in electric power markets. Even before the Enron debacle, a crisis that is more about the failures of corporate than regulatory law, it was clear that something had gone seriously wrong in the turn towards deregulation of electric power. Recent events in California are illustrative. In early 2000, consumers in California, the first state to deregulate retail power markets on a mass scale, saw repeated months of power interruptions. Many utility customers experienced a risk …

Market Power And Antitrust Issues In The Restructuring Of The Electric Industry, David L. Cruthirds

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Dynegy is one of the country's leading energy merchants - formerly NGC Corporation and Natural Gas Clearinghouse.

Antitrust Issues Meet Natural Gas & Electric System Reliability Issue In A Competitive Marketplace, Mark T. Maassel

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Mr. Maassel's outline for his speech.

University Of Richmond Law Review

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gatt And The Half-Life Of Uranium Industry Protection, James R. Wilch

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The uranium market can never truly be "free," however. Because uranium has few metallurgical uses, and because there is a real danger of weapons-grade uranium falling into irresponsible hands, non-proliferation restraints and tight safety regulation are required on uranium trade. Nevertheless, this Comment will show that civilian uranium trade policy can be formulated to resolve the tension between GATT, and military security and nonproliferation interests.

Electric Power Transmission & Purchases : Report Of A Study By The Joint Standing Committee On Utilities, 112th Maine Legislature, Maine. Legislature. Joint Standing Committee On Utilities

Maine Collection

Electric Power Transmission & Purchases : Report Of a Study By the Joint Standing Committee on Utilities, 112th Maine Legislature

Maine Legislature. Joint Standing Committee on Utilities.

Augusta, Maine (December 2, 1986).

Contents: Introduction / Issues & Recommendations / Review of 1986 Legislation / Maine's Electric Power Picture / Technical Analysis of Transmission & Wheeling / Economic Implications of Transmission & Wheeling /. Legals Analysis of Transmission & Wheeling / Proposed Legislation / Appendices / Tables & Figures

Interstate Gas Pipeline Ratemaking And Contract Implications, Henry E. Brown

Natural Gas Symposium: Contract Solutions for the Future of Regulatory Environment (March 24-25)

61 pages.

Contains references.

Contains 7 attachments.

Creditors’ Rights Involved In The Production And Sale Of Natural Gas, William M. Schultz

Natural Gas Symposium: Contract Solutions for the Future of Regulatory Environment (March 24-25)

101 pages (includes forms).

Contains 6 attachments.

Section 311 And 312 Of The Natural Gas Policy Act Of 1978 And Hinshaw Pipelines, Lauren Eaton

Natural Gas Symposium: Contract Solutions for the Future of Regulatory Environment (March 24-25)

5 pages.

Drafting And Interpreting Sensitive Gas Purchase Contract Provisions, William D. Watson

Natural Gas Symposium: Contract Solutions for the Future of Regulatory Environment (March 24-25)

8 pages.

Off-System Sales: Will They Ever Return?, Paul F. O'Konski

Natural Gas Symposium: Contract Solutions for the Future of Regulatory Environment (March 24-25)

5 pages.