04.17.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:43 pm by member
I was recently invited to write about energy issues at Agricultural Law, which is part of the Jurisdynamics Network. I welcome any comments on my most recent post, Is Cash the Only Thing Green about the Renewable Fuel Standard?
Dan Owens, of the Blog for Rural America, has added some insightful comments about the RFS legislation. And over at the Environmental Law Prof Blog, it was argued that I should have gone further and advocated a policy that would “restrict ethanol to cellulosic fuels that are not produced on lands converted from food crops.” I agree with the reasoning behind such a requirement, but if the RFS required that the ethanol source be a crop that can be grown on degraded lands, it is my hope that farmers with land suitable for food crops would not want to compete with those using degraded lands. That is, the farm land would be worth more for growing food crops. To ensure we move away from ethanol derived from food sources (and ultimately food-quality lands), promotion of technologies for cellulosic ethanol should the primary goal of the RFS, at least in the early years.
- Josh Fershee
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03.27.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:14 pm by member
Despite my best intentions, I have not been back to post in two+ months. In that time, a few folks have forwarded some items for posting, so here they are:
First, here is a link to Carolyn Elefant’s Offshore Renewable Energy Blog, which might be of interest. Congratulations to Carolyn on her new book, too!
Second, Mike Stosser, Sr. Vice President and General Counsel, Ardour Capital Investments, LLC, asked that I post this presentation: Financing Renewable/Alternative Energy Projects.
–Josh Fershee
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03.26.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:55 am by admin
For FERC materials on renewable energy generally, see http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/energy-innovations/renewable.asp
The Renewables Committee also suggests the following resources as relevant to issues to be addressed by Commissioner Marc Spitzer:
A. Transmission Access Issues:
1. Commission adopts Order No. 890, a Final Rule to Reform its Landmark 1996 Open Access Rules, Order Nos. 888 & 889, February 15, 2007
2. Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) reform (includes order, press release, and fact sheet): http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/oatt-reform.asp
3. OATT reform: Conditional-firm transmission and re-dispatch: http://www.nationalwind.org/events/webinar/default.htm
4. Statement by Commissioner Wellinghoff: http://www.ferc.gov/press-room/statements-speeches/wellinghoff/2007/02-15-07-wellinghoff-E-1.asp
5. DOE National Public Interest Electric Corridor Study: http://www.oe.energy.gov/epa_sec1221.htm
6. Transmission Corridor Study: http://www.nationalwind.org/events/transmission/midwest/2006/presentations/Meyer.pdf
7. FERC Technical Conference on Queuing Practices (December 11, 2007): http://www.ferc.gov/EventCalendar/EventDetails.aspx?ID=3710&CalType=%20&Date=12/11/2007&CalendarID=116.
8. Recent FERC Orders Encouraging Transmission Grid Investment (March 2008): http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/trans-invest.asp
B. Renewable Energy:
1. FERC chart on State RPS requirements: http://www.ferc.gov/market-oversight/mkt-electric/overview/2007/elec-ovr-rps.pdf
2. “Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency”: http://www.dsireusa.org/
3. See Ryan Wiser, et. Al., Renewables Portfolio Standards: A Factual Introduction to Experience from the United States (2007): http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/reports/62569.pdf.
4. Note, Nathan E. Endrud, State Renewable Portfolio Standards: Their Continued Validity and Relevance in Light of the Dormant Commerce Clause, the Supremacy Clause, and Possible Federal Legislation. http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jol/vol45_1/endrud.pdf
5. The following articles on renewable energy are due for publication in the next issue of the Energy Law Journal (Vol. 29, No. 1), available at http://www.eba-net.org/journal.php:
- Joshua Fershee, Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry
- Robert Michaels, Rethinking renewable portfolio standards
- Financing Renewable Project Panel from the 2007 EBA Mid-Year Meeting, Financing projects for generation of electricity from renewable
C. National Renewable Portfolio Standard:
1. Christopher Cooper & Benjamin K. Sovacool, Renewing America the Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable Portfolio Standard (2007): http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf.
2. Mary Ann Ralls, Congress Got it Right: There’s No Need to Mandate Renewable Portfolio Standards, 27 Energy Law Journal p. 451.
3. Alan Nogee, et al., The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard, ELEC. J., May 2007, at 33.
4. Tax policy for renewable energy: Mona L. Hymel, The United States’ Experience with Energy-Based Tax Incentives: The Evidence Supporting Tax Incentives for Renewable Energy, at
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=896986.
5. FERC orders on wind interconnection: http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/gi/wind.asp
6. Wind chapter from 2004 State of the Markets Report: http://www.ferc.gov/market-oversight/st-mkt-ovr/som-rpt-2004.pdf (pp. 233-36)
7. PTC for incremental hydro: http://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/gen-info/comp-admin/credit-cert.pdf
8. Tidal energy permitting: http://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/indus-act/tidal-energy-permits.asp
9. New Rules for qualifying facilities: http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/gen-info/qual-fac.asp
10. Net metering: http://www.irecusa.org/connect/index.html
D. Location Constrained Resources:
1. FERC Declaratory Order on Location Constrained Resources (04/19/07): http://www.caiso.com/1bee/1bee7d3b3b4d0.doc
2. California ISO Tariff Filing for approval of Location Constrained Resource Policy (10/31/07): http://www.caiso.com/1c88/1c88dad154710.pdf
E. Energy Efficiency & Demand Response:
1. Commission site on demand response and advanced metering: http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/demand-response.asp
2. FERC Staff Report to Congress under EPAct 2005, Demand Response & Advanced Metering, August 2006: http://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/demand-response.pdf
3. FERC Staff Update to Congress, 2007 Assessment of Demand Response& Advanced Meterin, September 2007: http://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/09-07-demand-response.pdf
4. American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy: http://www.aceee.org/
5. Regulatory Assistance Project, “Energy Efficiency Policy Toolkit,” January 2007: http://www.raponline.org/Pubs/Efficiency%20Policy%20Toolkit%201%2004%2007.pdf
6. Commissioner Wellinghoff presentation on Demand Response: http://www.ferc.gov/EventCalendar/Files/20061010085200-WellinghoffDR061004Final.pdf
7. NARUC-FERC Demand Response Collaborative: http://demand-response.webexworkspace.com/login.asp?loc=&link=
8. Press release announcing collaborative and goals: http://www.ferc.gov/press-room/press-releases/2006/2006-4/11-02-06.asp
9. Collaborative documents: http://www.naruc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=514
F. Hydroelectric Project Re-Licensing:
1. Integrated, Traditional, and Alternative Licensing Processes: http://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/gen-info/licensing/licen-pro.asp
2. Exemptions from Hydropower Licensing Requirements of Part I of the FPA: http://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/gen-info/licensing/exemptions.asp
G. Climate Change Policy:
1. U.S. DOE Voluntary Emission Reduction Registration Program: http://www.pi.energy.gov/enhancingGHGregistry/index.html
2. U.S. EIA Report on 2006 Greenhouse Gas Emissions: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/ggrpt/index.html
3. Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce White Paper on Cap and Trade (October 2007)
4. The following article on potential federal carbon regulation is due for publication in the next Energy Law Journal (Vol. 29, No. 1), available at http://www.eba-net.org/journal.php:
5. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cap and Trade Panel, Carbon regulation and cap-and-trade programs.
6. Northwestern University Law Review: Colloquy: 2007: Robert L. Glicksman, Balancing Mandate and Discretion in the Institutional Design of Federal Climate Change Policy, available at http://www.law.northwestern.edu/lawreview/colloquy/2008/5/
7. John Dernbach, Moving the Climate Change Debate from Models to Proposed Legislation: Lessons from State Experience, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1103064
8. Jeffrey W. Moore, The Potential Law of On-Shore Geologic Sequestration of CO2 Captured from Coal-Fired Power Plants, 28 Energy Law Journal 443 (2007): http://www.eba-net.org/journal_vol28-22007.php?PHPSESSID=dde6dfdafd0e0ffd0364aa8c8bf4e0a6
9. See NATURAL RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT, Vol. 22, No. 3: http://lawlib.wlu.edu/CLJC/index.aspx?mainid=666&issuedate=2008-02-21&homepage=no, as follows:
- Federal Climate Change Legislation as If the States Matter,
Robert B. McKinstry, Jr., John C. Dernbach, and Thomas D. Peterson, p.3; link link2
- China: Climate Change Superpower and the Clean Technology Revolution
Margret J. Kim and Robert E. Jones, p.9, link link2
- California Climate Change Initiatives Leading the West and the Nation
Mary Ellen Hogan, p.14, link link2
- Climate Change and the Environmental Impact Review Process
Michael B. Gerrard, p.20, link link2
- Property Law and Climate Change
Gregory Sergienko, p.25, link link2
- Climate Change and Freshwater Resources
Noah D. Hall, Bret B. Stuntz, and Robert H. Abrams, p.30, link link2
- Global Climate Change and National Security
James Stuhltrager, p.36, link link2
- Carbon Accounting: A Practical Guide for Lawyers
Peter L. Gray and Geraldine E. Edens, p.41, link link2
- The Effects of Climate Change on American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes
Daniel Cordalis and Dean B. Suagee, p.45, link link2
- Climate Change and the Courts: Litigating the Causes and Consequences of Global Warming
Kevin Haroff and Jacqueline Hartis, p.50, link link2
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Posted in Uncategorized at 10:32 am by admin
Marc Spitzer was nominated by President George W. Bush to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a term expiring June 30, 2011.
Commissioner Spitzer believes the FERC’s primary missions are to ensure that America’s ratepayers have safe, economic, and reliable supplies of electricity and natural gas; and transparent, robust and competitive wholesale energy markets. Commissioner Spitzer believes that successful regulation of FERC-jurisdictional industries requires a balancing of all competing interests to ensure just and reasonable rates.
Commissioner Spitzer was elected in 2000 to the Arizona Corporation Commission and in 2002 was elected Chairman by his colleagues. He received recognition for his leadership of the Arizona Commission from 2003-2005.
In 1992, after many associations with civic, philanthropic and political causes, he was elected to the Arizona State Senate for District 18. Commissioner Spitzer served in the Legislature as Chair of the Judiciary and Finance Committees and was elected by his peers to the position of Senate Majority Leader in 1996.
As an attorney since 1982, Commissioner Spitzer represented taxpayers in proceedings involving the Internal Revenue Service. He was first certified as a Specialist in tax law by the Arizona Bar in 1987.
Commissioner Spitzer was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and grew up in Philadelphia.
After graduation from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he attended the University of Michigan, School of Law.
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01.09.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:27 pm by member
Over the next few months, I am hoping to be more diligent about posting to this blog. There is a lot going on in the world of renewable energy, and I think it could be a big help for a number of us to have more current commentary available. I am hoping I can encourage others to post some thoughts, too, either directly or in comments. It would be a big help to me, as I am looking for new areas for my research. Your ideas on legal issues in renewable energy are a great resource. If you have any thoughts, please post them here, or contact me directly.
Also, please check out my cross-post from last week: Commentary on Renewable Fuel Standard.
If the blog is not your thing, my contact info, including my e-mail address, is available via the link from my name below.
Josh Fershee
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01.05.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:57 pm by member
I was recently invited to share some of my views on Red Lion Reports, a great, relatively new blog hosted by Penn State (Dickinson) School of Law professors, Marie Reilly and Jeff Kahn, and two of PSU’s top law students, Alison M. Kilmartin and Kelly J. Bozanic.
My post argues, among other things, that the subsidies provided in the new energy bill, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, to facilitate a mandatory renewable fuel standard hide the real costs of this energy policy. Please jump over and share your thoughts and comments — I very much appreciate your thoughts — I mean that, even if you happen to disagree.
Here’s the link directly to my post: Lower Gas Prices By Paying More at the Pump?
Happy New Year! Josh Fershee
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06.12.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:05 pm by member
Posted by:Â Josh Fershee
During the last committee meeting I said I would provide a list of some recent scholarly articles of potential interest regarding energy (especially renewable energy). Much of the recent scholarship I have been reading is on agency action and decisionmaking. I found a few to be especially interesting.Â
One recent article discusses the higher standard federal courts apply to agency decisions as compared to lower court decisions or congressional actions. Although federal courts will uphold the outcome of lower court decisions or legislation with which they agree even if the reviewing court disagrees with the underlying rationale for that outcome, the same courts will only uphold agency decisions where the outcome rests firmly on the grounds put forward in the agency’s decision. The article argues that, rather than a “distrust of agency lawyers,” this difference is founded in the enforcement of an “obscured” requirement of the nondelegation doctrine, which requires that delegated powers are only valid if the agency exercising delegated authority states the grounds for such exercises under the enabling act. The article further argues that such a rationale suggests that the President’s exercise of statutory power faces similar demands to be constitutionally valid. Kevin M. Stack, The Constitutional Foundations of Chenery, 116 Yale L.J. 952 (2007), available at http://yalelawjournal.org/116/5/952_stack.html.
Additionally, the University of Chicago Law Review Symposium: Intergenerational Equity and Discounting provides some creative and unique arguments for how agencies should regulate activities that will or could impact only future generations. The discussions cover many of the key issues related to regulating climate change. A short essay by Eric Posner, Agencies Should Ignore Distant-Future Generations, provides an intriguing commentary at the political and procedural constraints on developing regulations.  A couple other articles that caught my eye: On Discounting Regulatory Benefits: Risk, Money, and Intergenerational Equity, by Cass R. Sunstein and Arden Rowell, and Discounting Dollars, Discounting Lives: Intergenerational Distributive Justice and Efficiency, by Louis Kaplow. The Symposium articles can all be found here: http://lawreview.uchicago.edu/issues/archive/v74/74_1/index.html.
Finally, I will put in a couple shameless plugs for some articles I have coming out in the next month or so. First, a paper I presented earlier this year, “Levels of Green: State and Regional Efforts, in Wyoming and Beyond, to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions” at the Wyoming Law Review Symposium, Wyoming Energy Development: A Community and Regulatory Assessment, will be published in the Wyoming Law Review. I was an invited presenter at the symposium, which featured, among others, U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, the late U.S. Senator Craig Thomas, and Rob Hurless, Energy Policy Advisor to Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal. Second, my article “Misguided Energy: Why Recent Legislative, Regulatory, and Market Initiatives Are Insufficient to Improve the U.S. Energy Infrastructure,” will appear in the Harvard Journal on Legislation. This is not specifically a renewable energy piece, but my arguments for additional transmission infrastructure generally are consistent with arguments for additional renewable-only transmission infrastructure.Â
Â
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Posted in Uncategorized, Committee Business at 9:39 am by admin
June 13, 2007 – 12 noon Eastern, 9:00 am Pacific
- Welcome and Introductions – Monica Schwebs, Co-Chair
- Suggestions for Changes to the Agenda – Monica Schwebs, Co-Chair
- Old Business
- Update on National Teleconference Planning – Bill Westerfield, Co-Chair
- Update on Planning for the Mid-Year Program and Primer on Climate Change and Renewable Energy (Note: Please also see the separate call for volunteers and speaker ideas.)
- Update on Program Committee Meeting held June 6, 2007 – Andrea Wolfman, Program Committee Chair, or Gearold Knowles, Renewable Energy Committee Vice Chair
- Discussion of possible Mid-Year Meeting program: Possible panel on national portfolio standard
- Introduction to Climate Change
- Discussion of possible panels for Primer on climate change and renewable energy
- Carbon Regulation (cap-and-trade and carbon tax)
- Renewable Energy Resources – especially renewable technologies and current developments
- Financing Renewable Energy Projects (with focus on unique issues encountered in renewable energy projects)
- New Business
- Idea for Blog/Newsletter Updates – Jeff Dennis
- Updating the Renewable Energy Committee Charter – Monica Schwebs, Co-Chair, and Bruce Malkenhorst
- Possible Collaboration with ADR Committee and West Coast Chapter on West Coast Renewable Energy Program – Bill Westerfield, Co-Chair
- Distribution of Membership List – Monica Schwebs, Co-Chair
- Next Meeting
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12.20.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:40 pm by admin
This report summarizes the thoughts and work of more than 100 energy experts representing the private, public and nonprofit sectors of Ohio. The participants gathered for a workshop cosponsored by Senator George V. Voinovich and Ohio university’s consortium for energy, economics and the environment (ce3) in Columbus, Ohio to identify opportunities for the state of Ohio to become a recognized leader in promoting energy independence. Attendees focused on four broad areas of interest: Fossil Fuels, transportation, Sustainable Development and clean Alternatives. A fifth group, energy education, convened separately and is included in the report.
Link to report
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12.15.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:32 am by member
The Environmental Duties of Public Utility Commissions (with David Farnsworth and Jason Rich)
18 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW 325 (2001)
Citation Text:
 18 PACENVLR 325
————————–
and
Revisiting the Environmental Duties of Public Utility Commissions
(with David Farnsworth, Jason Salmi Klotz and Jason Rich)
VERMONT JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAWÂ (Autumn 2006))
Â
Citation Text:
 7 VTJENVTLL 6
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