Governance: Markets & Regulation in the Green Transition

Regulators have introduced competition and market pricing into portions of American energy markets over the last two decades, while regulated prices and monopoly service still predominate in other parts of the system. Which of these different institutional environments is more conducive to an effective, just, and affordable green transition?  What kinds of mandates or economic incentives policies are likely to be most effective, fair, and affordable, and why?  These conversations discuss scholarship that addresses those issues. We have divided the conversations into three categories:  (1) Governance, Generally, including private/corporate governance (2) Capacity Markets & Regulating for Reliability, and (3) Regulatory Instruments & Carbon Emissions.

Conversations

Governance & Tradeoffs Generally

'Public Utility' -- Steering Competitive Energy Markets Toward Public Ends

William Boyd

Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law & UCLA Institute of the Environment & Sustainability

Cost Benefit Analysis and EPA's 'Secret Science'

Sheila Olmstead

Professor, LBJ School of Public Affairs & President’s Council of Economic Advisors (2016-17)

“Naïve Energy Markets” and the boundary between markets and regulation

David Spence

Baker Botts Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law, Professor of Business, Government & Society, McCombs School of Business

Environmental Privileging

Sharon Jacobs

Associate Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School, Board of the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources

Regional Differences in RTO Governance & Decision-making

Elizabeth Wilson

Director, Arthur L. Irving Center for Energy & Society, Dartmouth University

Private Energy -- Private Law & the Green Transition

Yael Lifshitz

Lecturer in Law, Kings College London

August 7, 2019

Climate Litigation & the Green Transition

Michael Burger

Director, Sabin Center for Climate Law and Policy

October 4, 2019

Law in the Anthropocene Epoch

Eric Biber

Edward C. Halbach Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley School of Law

October 3, 2019

Tort Law & Climate Change Litigation

Douglas Kysar

Deputy Dean and Joseph M. Field ’55 Professor of Law, Yale Law School

December, 2019

Climate Change and the Ethical Obligations of Business

Eric Orts

Guardsmark Professor of Business Ethics, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

February 13, 2020

Magic Numbers in the Climate Debate

Katharine Hayhoe

Direction of the Climate Center & Professor of Pubic Policy at Texas Tech University

May 6, 2020

Cost Reductions vs. Value Loss in the Renewables Build-Out

Eric Hittinger

Associate Professor of Public Policy, Rochester Institute of Technology

May 13, 2020

Oil & Gas Commissions as 'Incidental' Environmental Agencies

Tara Righetti

Associate Professor, University of Wyoming College of Law

May 23, 2020

Capacity Markets and Regulating for Reliability

Market Solutions to Reliability Challenges in Electricity Markets

Frank Wolak

Holbrook Working Professor of Commodity Price Studies, Director, Program on Energy & Sustainable Development Stanford University

Reliablity, Decarbonization & Federal-State Conflict Over Electricity Markets

Ari Peskoe

Director, Harvard Electricity Law Initiative & Lecturer, Harvard Law School

Maintaining Reliability in a Distributed Energy World

Amy Stein

Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law

Reliability and Renewables in Competitive Energy Markets

Joshua Macey

Visiting Assistant Professor, Cornell Law School

June 10, 2019

Modeling Decarbonization in the West

Arne Olson

Senior Partner, E3 

June 12, 2019

Keeping the Lights on with a High-Renewables Grid

Joshua Rhodes & Colin Meehan

Vibrant Clean Energy (Rhodes) & First Solar (Meehan)

August 7, 2019

Regulatory Instruments & Carbon Emission Reduction

Modeling the Evolution of a Greener Grid

David Adelman

Harry Reasoner Regents Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law

The Politics of Carbon Taxes vs. Regulation

Nathan Richardson

Associate Professor of Law, University of South Carolina School of Law

California's Energy Transition--Decarbonization and Decentralization

Michael Wara

Senior Research Scholar, Woods Hole Institute & Fellow, Stanford Law School

The Politics of Technology Transitions

Leah Stokes

Assistant Professor, University of California at Santa Barbara Dept of Political Science, and Bren School of Environmental Science & Management

June 4, 2019

Energy Exactions

Jim Rossi & Christopher Serkin

Lansden Chair (Rossi) and Ridley Chair (Serkin) in Law, Vanderbilt University Law School

August 29, 2019

Carbon Taxes: The Evolving Conventional Wisdom

Sheila Olmstead

Professor of Public Policy, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas

January 23, 2020

Restricting Energy Production & Flaring

James Coleman

Associate Professor of Law, SMU Dedman School of Law

March 27, 2020