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 …
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 »
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 …
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 …
The Caribbean hurricanes of 2017 made clear that many of the islands’ power systems are woefully unprepared to withstand the increasingly severe weather events that climate change is generating. Perhaps no island exemplified this inadequacy better than Puerto Rico; one month after hurricane Maria barreled into the island, approximately eighty percent of its population was …
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 »
Since the adoption of the utility business model in the early 20th century, governments have relied on extending their national transmission grids to supply electricity to remote populations. Many countries in Latin America have followed this model. In the few cases where grids were not extended, electrification has been achieved by installing local diesel generation. Yet, …
The Promise of Renewable Energy Microgrids for Rural Latin America Read More »
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 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 …
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 »
