Energy and Utilities Law Commons^™

The Failure Of International Global Warming Regulation To Promote Needed Renewable Energy, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Renewable power generation technologies exist today and comprise the foundation for the bridge to a sustainable international power generation infrastructure. However, the Kyoto Protocol (Kyoto) has failed to utilize these technologies. Kyoto also missed the forest for the trees: it disallowed forest preservation to count in its carbon currency. It also missed including the correct chemical base in developing countries. This Article examines what led international law not to focus on development in renewable power alternatives where they are most required in the international order: developing nations. It analyzes the critical role of international multilateral organizations to create the new …

Restructuring A Green Grid: Legal Challenges To Accommodate New Renewable Energy Infrastructure, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Things are never as simple as they might appear - and that is particularly true of understanding the demands on the new “smarter” grid. That “smarter” grid will include expanded renewable energy sources and new copper wire transmission to connect these new sources to load centers. Sounds simple, but there is much more to it to get it right. Electricity is our one form of energy that is not capable of efficient or low-cost storage; the grid must remain perfectly balanced second by second, or the power system collapses, as it did in California during its 2000–2001 electric system crisis, …

Why Electricity Matters, Developing Nations Matter, And Asia Matters Most Of All, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

There are several common conceptions about global warming that deserve greater scrutiny than they have received. First, is it true that we must resolve the legal and policy responses regarding global warming? Second, does the U.S. matter most of all to affect global warming? Third, are developing nations really bit players in the global warming equation? Finally, is there no blueprint for turning back global warming with renewable power in developing nations? Despite common wisdom, the answer to each is negative. Electricity matters, and it matters most of all in international venues.

In Part II of this article, I explain …

Power Purchase Agreements For Small Power Producers, Steven Ferrey, Anil Cabraal

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Five Asian nations, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam began designing or instituting Small Power Producer (SPP) programs in the mid-1990s to support energy development jointly with the private sector. This note draws on important markers and lessons for other countries on how to implement similar programs based on these experiences. While all Asian programs demonstrate certain commonalities due to fundamental legal relationships, each experience has been tailored to local conditions and requirements. Some have introduced innovative bidding, competitive, or incentive structures. The result is a rich palette of experience with small power projects in Asia.

Sustainable Energy, Environmental Policy, And States' Rights: Discerning The Energy Future Through The Eye Of The Dormant Commerce Clause, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

This article analyzes the various regulatory incentives for renewable energy development in the various states, and their possible Constitutional shortcomings. Almost half the states have enacted renewable portfolio standards, which create monetized renewable energy credits that are tradable credits for sustainable energy development compliance. About one-third of the states have developed system benefit charges and renewable trust funds to subsidize selected renewable energy projects. Each of these states have defined differently what is a qualifying renewable energy project. Some of the states, to further in-state interests, have established programs that impermissibly violate the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Others come …

Soft Paths, Hard Choices: Environmental Lessons In The Aftermath Of California's Electric Deregulation Debacle, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

In 2001, California's electric sector deregulation exploded, and with it the state economy and the state political structure. The Governor of California, just recently reelected was recalled by the population, and replaced with Arnold Schwarzenegger. While the physical manifestations of this crisis received media attention, there was a major legal subtext that is still playing out in the courts and will continue for a decade. With the pivotal role that electric power plays in modern American life, and the key transitional role of the legal and regulatory system in transitioning states to a restructured and less regulated format, there are …

The Eagles Of Deregulation: The Role Of The Courts In A Restructured Environment, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Electricity is a key resource. This article examines what really happened in California's electric deregulation, step-by-step, and critiques the regulatory response and legal fallout of the first major electric crisis in the U.S. in more than 50 years. It analyzes pending court cases and legislative initiatives, and why the latter were ineffective to militate the effects of the crisis. This article was the first article to assess the legal implications of the California regulatory collapse.

Exit Strategy: State Legal Discretion To Environmentally Sculpt The Deregulating Electric Environment, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Exit fees are a key regulatory tool to allocate the risk of power deregulation. Forty percent of the states have elected to restructure and at least significantly deregulate their retail power sectors. This involves a substantial change in the legal rules that govern one of the essential segments of the economy. Deregulation allows power consumers to leave traditional monopoly utility supply and shift to competitive sellers of power, and in certain states, many consumers have done so. How can states treat the stranded costs of the monopoly utilities? This article explores the issue of exit fee regulation of the various …

In From The Cold: Energy Efficiency And The Reform Of Hud's Utility Allowance System, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

This article takes a step beyond Professor Ferrey’s prior article published at Harvard, “Cold Power: Energy and Public Housing,” 23 HARV. J. ON LEGIS. 33 (1986), to review and document housing energy problems at the federal and local levels. It offers concrete proposals for a revised federal utility allowance system that, while recognizing technological

limitations facing public housing authorities, would employ more sophisticated statistical tools to administer better the federal utility allowance system.

Public and Section 8 housing are the two largest sources of low-income rental housing in the nation, subsidizing several million units in more than 3000 communities nationwide. …

Shaping American Power: Federal Preemption And Technological Change, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

This article predicted how a little-noticed Supreme Court decision would change American industry, and as of 2020, those earlier predictions had come true in fact. For more than half a century, Federal Power Act (FPA) created a demilitarized zone between competing federal and state jurisdiction over electric power regulation. Chronic legal friction between federal state regulatory authority erupted virulently over the construction of costly and unnecessary power plants during the 1980s. For America's most capital-intensive industry, a single decision can have a multi-billion dollar effect. In 1988 a divided United States Supreme Court expansively underscored the preemptive power of federal …

Cold Power: Energy And Public Housing, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

The United States Housing Act of 1937 created a regulatory scheme whereby the federal government provides utility allowances to local Public Housing Authorities (PHAs). In 1984, HUD promulgated regulations which granted PHAs the authority to establish utility allowances independent of any federal standards. Energy inefficiency and waste, however, continued to plague the vast public housing sector, compounding the burden imposed upon the poor by the general rise in energy costs.

This Article reviews the history of public housing energy regulations and argues that they have actually contributed to the present energy inefficiency of the public housing stock. This article:

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The Third World's Wood Crisis, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

President Reagan has decided to tack alone against the winds of world opinion on international energy issues. On three occasions, world leaders have asked the presiddent to cooperate in shaping multilateral energy solutions for deperate Third World nations. Finally, at the North-South summit in Cancun, Mexico, Reagan slammed the door.

Uploaded with permission from The Amicus Journal. Steven Ferrey, The Third World's Wood Crisis, 3 The Amicus J. 5 (Winter 1982).

Solar Banking: Constructing New Solutions To The Urban Energy Crisis, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

A host of detailed evaluations from various private institutions concludes that the nation's best and most cost-effective energy investments are in conservation and renewable energy resources. This article demonstrates that many of the households in the country are left wholly without access to these incentives, and that urban regions are threatened with effective exclusion from this energy incentive market. This article will highlight the innovative provisions of the enacted Solar Energy and Energy Conservation Bank during a prior Presidential administration.

This article showcases why innovative provisions in U.S. energy policy are required because both the private-market and traditional federal programs …