Energy and Utilities Law Commons^™

Third Party Access To Infrastructure In The United Kingdom Continental Shelf: An Unhappy Mix Of Heavy-Handed Regulation And Light-Handed Regulation, Yanal Abul Failat

Yanal Abul Failat

“An unhappy mix of poorly-drafted legislation; Statutory Guidance relative to the Ministerial power which is unfit for purpose; and a well-meaning but essentially useless industry code of best practice.”(Gordon 2012) The objective of this paper is to provide a synopsis on both hard law and soft law instruments addressing third-party access (“TPA”) to infrastructure in the UKCS. Firstly, the paper will outline the scope and purpose of TPA; followed by an outline and evaluation of the regulatory regime under the recently enacted Energy Act 2011 (“Act”) and the Infrastructure Code of Practice (“ICOP”). Finally, it will provide a conclusion on …

Traditionally-Structured Electric Utilities In A Distributed Generation World, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article argues that the twenty-first century challenge to the electric industry is different in kind from previous challenges. Further, past responses to past challenges are inadequate to meet the convergence of demands posed on investor owned electric utilities by new technologies, new markets, and new regulations. Instead, the twenty-first century challenge requires a dramatic new response as electric utilities face a new economic order and as they seek revenue protection and assurances of financial stability from their regulators.

This article will first explore current industry characteristics and challenges in Part II. Part III will then discuss the current situation …

The Superagency Solution, K.K. Duvivier

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

Securitize Me: Stimulating Renewable Energy Financing By Embracing The Capital Markets, Andrew C. Fink

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The current system of financing renewable energy projects is broken and inadequate, especially when compared to the framework for participating in oil and gas ventures. The solution lies in borrowing accepted energy business practices and adapting them to solar and wind energy projects. This Article focuses on the current issues facing renewable energy project financing in the United States, analyzes failed attempts to stimulate growth, and presents the securitization of renewable energy assets as a solution. Drawing on current legal structure and debates from the corporate sphere, this Article also discusses specific securitization techniques that can help to democratize and …

Public Utility And The Low-Carbon Future, William Boyd

Publications

Substantial reductions in global power sector emissions will be needed by midcentury to avoid significant disruption of the climate system. Achieving these reductions will require greatly increased levels of financing, technological innovation, and policy reform. In the United States, the scale and complexity of the overall challenge have raised important questions regarding prevailing regulatory and business models, with much scrutiny directed at the traditional practice of public utility regulation. Recognizing the many valid criticisms leveled against public utility regulation and the important questions raised about the viability of traditional utility business models, particularly in the face of substantial growth in …

Green Go! - The Military's Sustainability Mission, Felix Mormann

Articles

No abstract provided.

Ferc's Order No. 1000 From A Historical Perspective: Restructuring And Reorganization Of Electric Transmission Markets From 1996 Until Present, Nicolas A. Mctyre

Nicolas A. McTyre

No abstract provided.

Los Centros De Despacho Económico De Carga Como Entidades Que Ejercen Potestades Públicas, Marcelo Mardones

Marcelo Mardones

No abstract provided.

The Sun Also Rises: Prospects For Solar District Heating In The United States, Adam L. Reed, John S. Mccartney

Kevin L Doran

Renewable thermal energy remains a largely untapped resource in the United States, despite its low costs and growing popularity in many other countries and the pressing need to rapidly deploy and scale carbon-free energy sources in order to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. In this article, an energy attorney and a civil engineer collaborate to examine the prospects in the United States for solar district heating (SDH), a thermal technology that leverages economies of scale to provide zero-carbon, round-the-clock space and water heating (on average, the two largest components of building energy demand) to neighborhoods and commercial zones at costs competitive …

Getches Wilkinson Center Newsletter, Winter/Spring 2014, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment Newsletter (2013-)

No abstract provided.

The Penumbra Of The United States’
 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Brazil’S Clean Companies Act And 
Implications For The Pharmaceutical
 Industry, Beverley Earle, Anita Cava

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

For The Birds: Wind Energy, Dead Eagles, And Unwelcome Surprises, Sam Panarella

Faculty Law Review Articles

Wind turbines kill birds. A lot of birds. You would be hard pressed to find someone who is happy with that fact, including anyone in the wind energy development community. But until and unless there are technological advances in wind turbine design that eliminate their deadly impact on birds, it is something we must accept. Of course, acceptance does not and should not mean issuing a blank check to wind energy developers to wantonly injure birds. To do so would violate both the spirit and letter of a host of environmental laws that have at their core a stubborn insistence …

Beyond Tax Credits: Smarter Tax Policy For A Cleaner, More Democratic Energy Future, Felix Mormann

Articles

Solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies have the potential to mitigate climate change, secure America's energy independence, and create millions of green jobs. In the absence of a price on carbon emissions, however, these long-term benefits will not be realized without near-term policy support for renewable energy. This Article assesses the efficiency of federal tax incentives for renewables and proposes policy reform to promote renewable energy more cost-effectively through capital markets and crowdfunding.

Federal support for renewable energy today comes primarily in the form of accelerated depreciation and, critically, tax credits. Empirical evidence reveals that only a fraction of …

Utility Air Regulatory Group V. Epa: A Shot Across The Bow Of The Administrative State, Amanda Leiter

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Addressing Wind Power Intermittency In The Ercot And Spp Regions, Elizabeth Drews, Cedric Ireland, Neil Yallabandi

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

This Article explores efforts to address challenges involving wind power intermittency in two United States power regions: the South- west Power Pool (“SPP”) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (“ERCOT”). SPP and ERCOT are good case studies regarding these issues because each has among the strongest wind resources in the country, most of which are in isolated, sparsely populated areas and need long transmission lines to reach major load (electricity consumption) centers. Those circumstances increase the challenge of integrating intermittent wind generation into the electric system (grid).

Navigating The Winds Of Change: Licensing, Registration, And Regulatory Overlay For Wind Farms And Associated Transmission In Texas, Dennis W. Donley Jr., Stephanie S. Potter

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

The State of Texas leads the United States in wind energy generation capacity—it has more than twice the wind generation capacity of the next-closest state, California. If Texas was an independent nation, it would rank sixth in the world in total installed wind capacity. Texas has a rich history of legislation and regulatory effort to thank for these statistics, which reflects the knowledge that energy and infrastructure drive the economy. Starting in 1999, Texas became one of the first states to enact a Renewable Portfolio Standard (“RPS”). The RPS set a state-wide goal for new renewable energy installation with deadlines …

Ride Like The Wind: Selected Issues In Multi-Party Wind Lease Negotiations, Rod E. Wetsel, Steven K. Dewolf

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

The large-scale wind industry arrived in Texas in the early years of the twenty-first century with the intensity of a spring tornado. It was a welcome relief to farmers and ranchers beset by years of no rain and falling prices, and they lined up in droves to hear about and sign new wind leases. It was a new dawn for energy lawyers too. Gone were the days of one-on-one representation in the leasing of land. The new era required landowner attorneys to represent dozens or perhaps hundreds of people at a time. This is the story of the issues and …

Sins Of The Father, K.K. Duvivier

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

This Article will first provide some general background about severance and the related doctrine of dominant–servient estates. Next, it will address oil and gas severance specifically. Third, it will track the parallels and distinctions between the history of wind severance and the oil and gas history set out in Section II. Finally, Section IV will address the problems with the current responses to wind severance.

Lessons Of Wind Policies In Texas, Joshua Linn, Clayton Munnings

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Since the late 1990s, Texas has experienced more wind generator investment than any other U.S. state. It now has the most installed wind capacity of any state, and wind power accounts for a larger share of total generation in Texas than in most other states. Favorable wind resources and the relative ease of siting large projects have contributed to Texas’s prominence in wind investment and generation. Numerous policies have also played important roles, such as the federal tax credit for wind generation, the state’s renewable portfolio standard (“RPS”), and a regulatory environment conducive to new investment in the electric power …

Electric Power Resource "Shuffling" And Subnational Carbon Regulation: Looking Upstream For A Solution, Jim Rossi, Andrew J.D. Smith

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

"Resource shuffling" occurs when different subnational approaches to carbon regulation create variations in the costs of production across jurisdictions. California is the most aggressive jurisdiction in the United States to address climate change and has adopted a cap & trade program for its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This Article addresses the resource shuffling issue presented by California's cap-and-trade program and evaluates the merits of various legal and regulatory solutions to the problem.