ENERGYLAW
LEB 380.31, PA 388K
MW
Professor: David Spence
Course Description
This course is intended to
introduce graduate students to the ways in which legal/regulatory systems
affect the energy industry, and to the important economic and political
concerns that underlie the regulation of production and sale of energy. The course will be comparative: that is,
while much of our focus will be on the American regulatory system, we will
consider legal regimes from other countries as well. We will study, among other things: (1) the
structure of the energy industry itself; (2) the evolution of Anglo-American
regulatory systems from traditional public utility rate regulation to the
partially deregulated system of today; (3) the role of state ownership and
privatization of energy services in the rest of the world; (4) regulation of
production and other aspects of the industry upstream of wholesale and retail
sales; and (5) the issue of “political/regulatory risk” as it affects
investment in the energy industry.
Electronic communication: The official syllabus for
this course will be on the web. When changes are made in the syllabus, I will
notify you in class or via email or both; however, it is your responsibility to
consult the syllabus periodically and keep up to date with changes. In
addition, the syllabus contains important cross-links to other web locations
that you may find helpful. Unless I indicate otherwise, these links are not
required readings. Nevertheless, I encourage you to visit them. I will
communicate to you via email using the email list on blackboard for this
course. If you are not enrolled as a
user at the blackboard site, you will not receive group email communications.
Assignments:
- Class participation (including in-class exercises)
comprises 30% of your course grade. Perfect attendance in class does not
guarantee you an “A” in class participation; rather, you can maximize your
class participation grade by coming to class having done the readings and
prepared to discuss them, and by demonstrating creativity and effort in
your participation in in-class exercises.
Except when required during in-class exercises or by arrangement
with the instructor, laptop use in class is prohibited. More about
participation grades.
·
Each
student will be responsible for preparing a briefing consisting of a memo
and in-class presentation to
classmates on energy issues. (See the
syllabus for briefing topics). For each
briefing, students must prepare an individual
memo, and participate in an in-class team
presentation (with one or two other students). The memo should be no more than 6 pages in
length (single-spaced, exclusive of charts and graphs, 12-point
regular-width font), with citations to authority (footnotes or parenthetical
citations). More on memo writing. The presentation
should be 20-25 minutes in length, and will address the same topic as your
memo. You will receive an individual grade on your memo, and a team grade on
your presentation. The memo and
presentation will each comprise 20% of your course grade. For more information about individual
briefing topics, please see me.
·
A
final take-home problem will comprise the remaining 30% of your
grade. The problem requires no
additional research; rather it asks you to apply concepts from class and
the readings to a hypothetical problem and produce a written response. It is essentially a take-home, single problem
final exam.
ASSIGNMENT
SCHEDULE
|
DATE |
TOPIC |
ASSIGNMENTS |
Additional Readings
(not required) |
|
|
I. FOUNDATION
MATERIAL
|
|
|
|
1/21 |
Historical Introduction and
Introduction to Energy |
·
Brennan,
Chp. 2
|
·
Conversion
of energy and the laws
of thermodynamics ·
EIA’s
historical timeline of major developments energy industry ·
History
of electricity use in North America |
|
1/26 |
Legal and Theoretical Basis for
Regulation of Energy Goods and Services |
|
·
A
chronology of John D.
Rockefeller’s “South Improvement Co.” scheme
|
|
|
II.
EXTERNALITIES |
|
|
|
1/28 |
A. Water and the Rise of Hydropower
|
|
|
|
|
B. Coal
|
|
|
|
2/2 |
1. Coal Mining PRESENTATION: Coal
mining safety and the future of coal use in China. |
·
Kentuckians for
the Commonwealth v. Rivenburgh
(4th Cir. 2002)(read majority opinion parts I and
|
.
History o
Coal
exploitation in North America o
Explanation of
surface mining methods |
|
2/4 |
2. Coal Combustion & air
pollution - I PRESENTATION:
Political, policy and legal forces affecting the future of coal
combustion in |
|
|
|
2/9 |
2. Coal Combustion & air
pollution - II PRESENTATION: Can
EPA regulate CO2 emissions under the Clean Air Act? Must it? |
|
|
|
|
C. Oil and Gas
|
|
|
|
2/11-16 |
1.
Oil and risk (presentations 2/16) PRESENTATION: The
political and legal risks of investment in oil exploration and development in
PRESENTATION: What is
the “oil curse”? What can oil-rich
developing nations do to try to avoid the curse? |
·
Brief history of oil
industry ·
|
Background: ·
Oil
exploitation in North America Political
Risk: ·
Oil.com ·
CSIS,
Energy
publications ·
Shibley Telhami,
Fiona Hill, et al., “Does Saudi Arabia Still Matter? Differing
Perspectives on the Kingdom and Its Oil,” Foreign Affairs,
November/December 2002
·
World
Press Review web
page on the politics of Central Asian oil.
|
|
2/18 |
2. Transportation fuels PRESENTATION: Existing and proposed
|
Transportation
fuels
|
|
|
2/23 |
3. Environment IN-CLASS DEBATE QUESTIONS: 1.
Should the offshore drilling moratoria currently imposed for sites off of the
2.
Should Congress lift the moratorium on oil exploration
in ANWR? |
Offshore drilling
ANWR o Defenders of Wildlife ANWR page o ANWR.org
(Arctic Power) |
Sustainable
Energy Institute’s Committee
Against Offshore Drilling National
Geographic magazine summary |
|
2/25 |
4. Natural Gas PRESENTATION: Security
of gas supplies in |
·
Basics of natural
gas, from exploration to market ·
Summary of the
environmental impacts of the natural gas industry from Naturalgas.org. |
|
|
3/2 |
Natural
Gas cont’d Liberalization of Natural Gas
Markets PRESENTATION: How can PRESENTATION: How has restructuring of the gas industry
proceeded in |
|
·
Polo
and Scarpa, “Liberalization
and Market Segmentation in the Natural Gas Industry,” Working paper,
December, 2002. ·
U.S.
EIA natural gas restructuring web site |
|
3/4 |
1. Future of nuclear power (excluding waste
issue) PRESENTATION: The future of nuclear energy in |
|
International Atomic Energy Agency Maps of
nuclear plants in North America,
South America,
Europe, and Asia |
|
3/9-20 |
Break for Global
Connections and Spring Break |
|
|
|
3/23 |
2.
Nuclear Waste Disposal PRESENTATION: Resolution of the
nuclear waste disposal problem – present and future. |
|
|
|
3/25 and 3/30 |
Exercise in class – RPS worksheet (30 min.) Debate: role of renewables in future energy mix |
Browse links at
right |
Wind
Solar
Biomass
Geothermal
Tidal/Wave
|
|
4/1 |
Permit
Trading Exercise |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4/6 |
A.
Fundamentals |
|
|
|
4/8 |
B. Restructuring Experiences ( |
|
|
|
4/13 |
C.
Price Small group
exercise: You will be presented with a
set of wholesale transactions modeled after those presented by the |
|
|
|
4/15 |
D.
Presentation: How has restructuring of electricity markets
proceeded in |
|
|
|
4/20 |
E.
Ensuring
reliability Presentation: How can and do regulators and system
operators attempt to ensure reliable service (i.e., adequate long term supply
of energy and transmission capacity) in competitive markets? |
|
|
|
4/22 |
F.
Role of public power Debate: What role should
government play in providing energy and/or transmission services? |
·
Brennan,
chp. 13 |
|
|
4/27 |
G.
Minimizing social costs under competition Presentation: What are renewable portfolio
standards? How are they used in the Presentation:
What is “demand side management” or “demand response”? What would a
state-of-the-art demand response program entail? |
·
Brennan, chps. 15 and 16 |
|
|
4/29 |
H. More on demand Response and Efficiency |
|
|
|
|
IV.
PUTTING IT |
|
|
|
5/4 |
Browse recent energy bills. Exercise: Small groups will prepare
own legislative and regulatory package proposing changes to the U.S. energy
policy status quo, and will explain their decisions on 5/6 (10 min
presentations). |
BROWSE Energy Policy
Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) ·
Library
of Congress summary
of provisions Energy Independence and Security Act
of 2007 (EISA 2007) ·
Library
of Congress summary
of provisions Energy
Improvement and Extension Act ·
Senate
committee staff summary ·
House
summary and
full text Stimulus
package 2009 ·
BNET’s
notes
on energy provisions in stimulus package |
|
|
5/6 |
Groups and
Questions TBA |
Final
problem distributed: due one week
later. |
|