Energy Archives - Guarini Center

Joint Comments to New York State DEC and NYSERDA on New York Cap-and-Invest Program

The Guarini Center, together with the Institute for Policy Integrity (Policy Integrity), submitted comments to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) in response to a request for comment on various recent publications and presentations concerning the future New York Cap-and-Invest Program (NYCI), […]

Joint Comments to New York State DEC and NYSERDA on New York Cap-and-Invest Program Read More »

Propertizing Environmental Attributes

By Adalene Minelli

Tangible environmental resources such as land and water have been the object of property rights and traded in markets for millennia. In a development largely unnoticed by legal scholars, technology now allows a new class of environmental resources that are much harder to see and touch to be measured and potentially sold—environmental attributes. Some of

Propertizing Environmental Attributes Read More »

Ownership of Environmental Attributes in the Energy World

By Adalene Minelli

Since commercial drilling for oil and gas began in the United States in the nineteenth century, the idea that the first party to capture oil and gas owns them has played a role in determining who initially owns these resources. This article, which appears in the American Bar Association’s July/August 2022 issue of Trends, describes how

Ownership of Environmental Attributes in the Energy World Read More »

Cutting Carbon and Costs Across NYU

By Adalene Minelli

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions are crucial to combating the threat of climate change. In the absence of significant federal action to address GHG emissions, universities have become laboratories for innovative energy efficiency policy solutions to reduce such emissions. We believe that New York University (NYU) can play a vital role in this movement by

Cutting Carbon and Costs Across NYU Read More »

Water for Nukes: Could Canadian Hydropower Keep New York’s Emissions in Check After Indian Point?

By Adalene Minelli

The planned closure of the Indian Point nuclear facility, which currently supplies about 25 percent of New York City’s electricity, could cause a substantial rise in greenhouse emissions and local air pollution if concerted action is not taken to secure alternative clean energy resources for the City. In this Policy Brief, Guarini Center Energy Law

Water for Nukes: Could Canadian Hydropower Keep New York’s Emissions in Check After Indian Point? Read More »

Political Cross Currents in the Electricity Sector

By Adalene Minelli

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission faces increasing and conflicting pressures from both States and the Department of Energy to intervene in the federal wholesale electricity markets that FERC administers. In this primer, Guarini Center fellow Peter S. Ross provides a brief overview of those political forces and the legal framework in which they operate. The

Political Cross Currents in the Electricity Sector Read More »

Greening New York City’s Homes: The Case For Requiring Energy Efficiency Upgrades

By Adalene Minelli

If New York City hopes to achieve the ambitious goals it set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it will have to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of its building sector, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of the city’s total emissions. This policy brief argues that requiring owners of small residential buildings to perform simple energy

Greening New York City’s Homes: The Case For Requiring Energy Efficiency Upgrades Read More »

The FPA and the Private Right to Preempt

By Adalene Minelli

The boundary between state and federal authority over the electricity sector is in flux. A host of new technologies is rapidly changing how electricity is generated and consumed. At the same time, state and federal regulators are adopting novel laws and regulations to cope with these changes and to address other priorities, such as reducing

The FPA and the Private Right to Preempt Read More »

FERC v. EPSA: Functionalism and the Electricity Industry of the Future

By Adalene Minelli

This article examines the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply Association. It argues that the decision represents a deeply functional and pragmatic approach to the Federal Power Act. That approach, it concludes, represents a promising development for the future of electricity regulation, especially for programs such as net metering and

FERC v. EPSA: Functionalism and the Electricity Industry of the Future Read More »

Building Demand for Efficient Buildings: Insights from the EU’s Energy Disclosure Regime

By Adalene Minelli

In late 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed expanding the scope of New York City’s hallmark building energy disclosure law, Local Law 84, to cover midsized buildings. The proposed expansion could prove critical to the City’s pollution-reduction goals. Yet, without also addressing the means by which energy information is communicated, Mayor de Blasio’s proposal is

Building Demand for Efficient Buildings: Insights from the EU’s Energy Disclosure Regime Read More »