Energy Law in a Nutshell
Author:
Tomain, Joseph P.
Edition:
3rd
Copyright Date:
2017
20 chapters
have results for Energy law in a nutshell
Introduction 17 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Energy Law in a Nutshell
- Energy Law
- Energy Law in a Nutshell
- Perhaps no single event emphasizes a transition to clean power as much as the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. The Environmental Protection Agency issued final rules for the Clean Power Plan in August 2015 but, as of this writing, those rules have been stayed in an unusual decision by the United States Supreme Court and are currently in legal limbo. In essence, the Clean Power Plan can be considered the first major federal effort to bridge energy and environmental regulation. As a result of mixing energy and the environment, political opposition to environmental law that has traditionally existed has now affected energy law.
- In the case of
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Chapter 2 Energy Policy 141 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The conversion of natural resources into useable energy involves the first two laws of thermodynamics which play important roles in energy policy. The First Law of Thermodynamics is —energy changes form but does not dissipate. Indeed, that is Einstein’s famous equation E = M . In the above example of electricity, energy in coal, was converted into energy in the form of steam, which in turn was converted to energy in the form of electricity. If we were to measure all of the potential energy, heat energy, and work energy we would find that they were equal to the amount of potential energy before and after the conversion. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is —energy moves from a localized or confined space to an unconfined or dispersed space. Examples of the Second Law are that ice melts and hot pans cool down into the air around them.
- Energy law as a specific field of study and as an area of law practice is a relatively recent development. The flurry of legislative activity that resulted as a reaction to the Arab Oil Embargo in 1973 and the Iranian Revolution in 1979 is generally considered to constitute the primary body of what is now referred to as energy law. This corpus of law generally involves the federal regulation of the energy fuel cycle. It also affects the industrial structures used to extract, transmit, convert, and distribute energy products, and the sectors of the economy that consume that energy.
- The CPP, then, has the potential of serving as a catalyst for an energy transition away from fossil fuels to cleaner energy resources by merging energy law and policy with environmental law and policy. The CPP stands as a formal recognition that the energy fuel cycle, from production and transportation to consumption and disposal, has long-term environmental consequences that must be addressed. Regardless, the CPP is the first major federal foray addressing climate change and, to the extent that it is part of an energy transition, it complements state and private market initiatives discussed in later chapters.
- Even in this initial phase of energy regulation, the dominant policy model can be discerned in its embryonic form. The model defined energy law and policy as a series of rules and regulations promoting the development of individual natural resources industries. Energy regulation emanated from a fundamental tension between an energy delivery system based on private ownership and the need for public regulation. The consequence of this tension was a series of government policies promoting energy businesses.
- The history of energy law and policy until 1973 demonstrates the development of a dominant model of energy policy. The decade following 1973 tested that model as world energy markets experienced dramatic changes. In response to those changes, President Carter attempted to centralize energy policymaking and decisionmaking and tried to develop a comprehensive and coordinated national energy plan. That plan never coalesced. President Reagan tried to deregulate energy on a broad scale and dismantle the Department of Energy. He failed as well. In short, neither the Carter hyper-regulatory approach nor the Reagan deregulatory approach was effective in radically altering energy regulation, which continued to hew closely to the dominant policy model that had developed over the previous century. The inability of these two presidential administrations to control energy policy demonstrates the tenacity of the model.
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Chapter 11 Clean Power 152 results (showing 5 best matches)
- In short, renewable energy has maintained a modest role in our country’s energy picture. Nevertheless, we are witnessing a growth in these energy resources. Renewable energy, as is true of all alternative energy sources, must compete against the dominant model. To the extent that it replaces the dominant model, it will only do so as a matter of supply and demand. In other words, renewable energy will become a larger part of the nation’s energy picture to the extent that it becomes cost-effective and those resources, together with new technologies are moving in that direction.
- In the previous editions of this book, this chapter was called
- Although the country has had various conservation laws for over 100 years, it was not until the Energy Crisis of the 1970s that Congress addressed non-traditional energy sources. Recall that President Carter introduced major legislation under the general heading of the National Energy Act of 1978. For the most part, the National Energy Act addressed traditional energy sources. President Carter followed that legislation with the Energy Security Act of 1980, . The Energy Security Act was comprised of several pieces of legislation, many of which will be referenced in specific subsections below. In general, the Energy Security Act addressed a wide variety of renewable and non-renewable alternative sources as a method of reducing dependence on imported oil. To no small extent, the Energy Security Act established a series of financing initiatives for developing alternative sources. Unfortunately, none of these efforts was successful either in reducing dependence on foreign oil or in...energy
- Federal energy policy, as noted, supports the traditional fossil-fuel path while occasionally promoting a clean energy agenda. It is not too much to say, though, that with the exception of the Clean Power Plan, states and regional clean energy initiatives are currently more important that federal actions. The array of clean energy programming is extensive and is amply catalogued in
- Another clean power source can be labeled conservation, energy efficiency, or energy intensity. To some extent these three labels overlap but we can define them separately. First, energy conservation means that energy is conserved simply by consuming less. Second, energy efficiency is achieved when a given level of service is provided with fewer energy inputs, or services are enhanced with the same amount of energy. Third, and closely related, energy intensity measures the quantity of energy required per unit output. In other words, using less energy to produce a product reduces the intensity.
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Copyright Page 5 results
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- The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or other professional advice, and this publication is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. If you require legal or other expert advice, you should seek the services of a competent attorney or other professional.
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Chapter 3 The Administration of Energy Law 116 results (showing 5 best matches)
- In 1977, a cabinet-level department concerned with problems of energy was created with a mission of providing a reliable supply of energy in all its forms and of conserving energy. The Department of Energy (DOE) contains within it a so-called independent regulatory agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which is charged with implementing and enforcing the Federal Power Act, the Natural Gas Act, the Natural Gas Policy Act and various other important pieces of federal energy legislation. Administrative procedures with respect to energy matters are governed both by the organic legislation creating the agencies and delegating powers to them, and by the Administrative Procedure
- Perhaps of most significance is the amount of financial supports provided by DOE. In addition to energy R & D funding, government supports help develop energy markets through loan guarantees, tax incentives and expenditures, regulatory lag insurance and other financial mechanisms. Historically, most of DOE’s energy R & D was directed at defense related energy matters. Today, however, while DOE R & D supports a very wide variety of energy projects, much of their research is dedicated to developing new clean energy technologies and markets through such programs as the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). ARPA-E is currently engaged in over 400 potentially transformative energy projects from fusion research to energy storage and from advanced nuclear technologies to bioengineering. Most often, these programs involve public-private partnerships among business, government, science, and the academy, which are driven by a commercial mission to bring these new technologies to...
- Within the DOE there is an Under-Secretary for Energy, Science and the Environment who has important responsibilities for such matters as energy efficiency, energy conservation and renewable energy. Despite the 1977 consolidation, however, there are still important energy agencies and programs which are not under the umbrella of the Department of Energy and are mentioned below.
- Since the development and use of energy has powerful environmental impacts, the regulatory activities of the EPA are a major factor in energy production, development, transportation and distribution as clearly demonstrate by the EPA’s promulgation of the Clean Power Plan. Many EPA rules and regulations have a direct impact on energy activities. The EPA’s mission is to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment—air, water and land—upon which life depends. It would not have been appropriate, because of the potential conflict of their missions, to place the EPA within the Department of Energy. The principal obligation of the Department of Energy is to assure an adequate and reliable supply of energy, while that of the EPA is to assure that the exploitation of energy resources does not unduly adversely impact the environment.
- Before the creation of the DOE, the federal regulation of energy resources was spread throughout almost every cabinet department, not to mention eight or nine independent regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over various energy programs. Originally, the DOE assumed all the powers of the Federal Energy Administration, the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Federal Power Commission; and these agencies were eliminated, at least in name. In addition to FERC, with which it is linked on an equal basis, the DOE contains and is responsible for, among other organizations and program efforts, the National Nuclear Security Administration, various research programs and facilities (including one for electric transmission and distribution), the Energy Information Administration, which is a statistical agency collating and analyzing energy information, the Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs, and the Power Marketing Administrations, such as Bonneville and...
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Chapter 10 Hydropower 70 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The amount of hydroelectricity that can be derived from a plant is proportional to the energy delivered to the turbine, which in turn depends on the speed and amount of water flowing through it. Generally speaking, the broader and higher the dam, the more energy that can be generated. The energy is transferred to a generator which converts the energy to electricity.
- Hydropower, the energy derived from falling water, has long been an energy resource in the United States. It was first used through water mills to provide mechanical energy to grind grain and operate local machinery. In the 20th century, hydropower has been used almost exclusively to generate electricity. Today, hydroelectric power can generate enough electricity to supply 28 million households.
- Another new licensing criterion that the ECPA has established involves energy conservation. Under section 4(e), the Commission is to give “equal weight” to energy conservation in making licensing decisions, in order that those who receive licenses will consider energy conservation as an energy supply alternative. Section 3(b) of the ECPA also requires the FERC to consider “the electrical consumption efficiency improvement program of the applicant * * * for encouraging or assisting its customers to conserve electricity.”
- Because hydropower is essentially free, the electricity produced from it is less costly than electricity produced from other sources. Hydropower, however, is not a completely reliable source of energy, which presents challenges for energy planning. In the sections below, we describe the trade-offs to be made between cost and reliability and we discuss the environmental issues surrounding this energy source.
- While the total amount of hydroelectric energy generated in the United States has increased in recent years, its share of the total energy used by consumers in this country has declined. In the 1940s and 1950s, hydropower provided 40% of the nation’s electric energy. By the 1990s, that amount has dropped to 6% of the country’s electricity and approximately 4% of all energy. Hydroelectricity accounts for over 90% of renewable energy in the United States and hydropower generates 310 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, which are the equivalent of over 500 million barrels of oil per year. Today the expansion of hydroelectric facilities is limited by the small number of sites on which new dams may be located, and by the limits that streams and rivers themselves impose on facility size and output.
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Chapter 1 Energy Economics 95 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Energy law and policies are particularly susceptible to economic analysis because economics helps explain the distribution and allocation of scarce natural resources. The study of energy law and policies begins with the exploration, recovery, and development of natural resources. Although these resources have alternative uses, moving water can be used for recreation or for electricity production, for example, our study traces their conversion into usable energy. Next, we examine the distribution of those natural resources along the energy fuel cycle from exploration to the distribution of resources to energy producers then to various groups of consumers, and finally, to their waste and disposal. Before we discuss in detail how markets operate and when they fail to operate, we need to explain some background principles about the discipline of economics.
- How is it, then, that if there are only a handful of reasons for government intervention and only a handful of regulatory responses that the scope and breadth of government regulation is as wide and broad as it is? It is our intent to answer that question by discussing a variety of energy laws and policies. The story that we are about to tell you has its historical dimensions and it also involves the interaction of law, policy, and politics in their many guises. Government regulation has existed since the founding of our country and we have no doubt that it will continue to exist. Still, there seems to be a pattern to regulation to which we now turn.
- Government regulation, at its most basic level, is a two-step process. First, policymakers assume that the market is functioning efficiently and fairly. If it is not, then a market imperfection is recognized. Second, policymakers can then choose to correct the imperfection through regulation. Not surprisingly, the regulatory process is more complex, involving as it does policy, politics, and law. Before we more fully develop the intricacies of the regulatory process, it is necessary to understand basic concepts in economics. In this Chapter we describe the virtues of the market and its basic operations. We also identify market failures, those times when market operations fail to achieve the stated virtues. In subsequent chapters we explain in detail the regulatory responses to those market failures using examples from energy industries.
- Not every regulatory effort goes through each of these stages. A program caught in the stage of government failure, for example, need not entertain a package of regulatory reforms, and may instead proceed to deregulation. Still, the life cycle, and its underlying aspirations for efficiency and fairness, highlights the role that the political process plays in our system of government regulation. The underlying ideology of government regulation is to correct inequities in markets in response to the reality that markets do not always run smoothly. As you continue to study energy law and policy you will continue to engage questions about the amount and sufficiency of the government regulation of the economy.
- It should be recognized that there is no single form of property. Instead, particularly in the field of energy law and policy, there are three basic types of property interests—private goods, common goods, and public goods and each form requires different regulatory attention. Some goods, e.g. private goods, are more easily addressed through common law rules than others, e.g. public goods, which require government regulations such as price controls or environmental standards.
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Chapter 9 Nuclear Power 107 results (showing 5 best matches)
- While the AEC and JCAE looked to the eventual commercialization of nuclear power, the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 restricted ownership of reactors and fuels to the government. By 1953, the Eisenhower administration, under pressure from scientists, business leaders, and diplomats, revised the nation’s atomic energy policy and encouraged private commercial development through passage of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, et seq. The 1954 Act ended the federal government’s monopoly over nonmilitary uses of atomic energy. It allowed for private ownership of reactors under an AEC licensing procedure. The purpose of the new law specifically regarding private participation was to provide for “a program to encourage widespread participation in the development and utilization of atomic energy for peaceful purposes to the maximum extent consistent with the common defense and security and with the health and safety of the public.”
- Nuclear power can be obtained either by fission or fusion. Fission is a chain reaction which splits an enriched uranium nucleus and results in the release of energy (heat). Nuclear fusion also produces energy, but it uses an opposite process through which a reaction and consequent heat are obtained by combining nuclei. Fusion produces substantially less radioactive waste and what it does produce is short-lived and is remote from weapons technologies. Although fusion produces a great deal more energy than fission, fusion is both technologically and financially prohibitive at this time although the Department of Energy does fund a fusion energy research program.
- The transfer from military control began with the passage of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, 60 Stat. 755, establishing the civilian Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to regulate and control military use and to promote commercial development. The 1946 Act, however, precluded private ownership. The passage of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 begins the second stage in the history of nuclear power because now private ownership was permitted and commercial nuclear power gained in popularity only to come to a screeching halt in the 1970s.
- The country is now in the third stage of its nuclear power history since the nuclear collapse as we address this most significant question: What is the role of nuclear power in our energy future? This question only gains in importance as we begin to think about formulating a clean energy policy. This chapter attempts to answer that question as we take you through the nuclear fuel cycle and explain the regulatory history of this energy source.
- Nuclear wastes are currently located in 129 sites in 39 different states, which include 72 commercial nuclear reactor sites, a commercial storage site, 43 research sites, and 10 Department of Energy sites. If a major disposal site is finally designated, the Secretary of Energy is authorized to enter into contracts with owners and generators of spent nuclear fuel for storage. In addition, transportation plans must be developed to guarantee an environmentally safe and sound transit. Although the commercial nuclear power market has been stagnant for nearly two decades, nuclear waste disposal issues continue to be an important part of the nation’s energy planning.
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Chapter 4 Energy Decisionmaking 119 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Another rate design is known as the feed-in tariff (FIT) and it is intended to expand the use of renewable resources. FITs are used more in Europe than the United States although California, Vermont, and a few other states are implementing them. The FIT is a contract between a utility and an energy provider (mostly electricity from renewable resources). The utility agrees to buy a certain amount of electricity at a price set by the regulator. Thus, the FIT provides a utility with a revenue stream by setting the price, including a reasonable profit, for the renewable energy that a utility purchases from a particular provider or project. In this way, the renewable energy project developer has a reliable income and the utility knows what rates it can charge.
- The idea behind decoupling is to remove the sales incentive while encouraging investments in energy efficiency, renewable resources, and distributed generation as well as smart technologies. The purpose of the design is to allow the utility to recover its fixed costs while not affecting its net income. One form of decoupling is known as a straight fixed variable rate design (SFV) through which the utility will recover all of its fixed costs, such as the cost of capital in the fixed component and all of its variable costs, such as the cost of energy, in its variable component. In this way, utility income is decoupled from electricity sales because the utility both earns a return on its capital investment (e.g. investments in renewable energy) and recovers its variable energy expenses. Consequently, the utility should be indifferent to how much electricity it sells because it will recover all of its fixed and variable costs and its financial risk due to variance in sales is reduced.
- One way of addressing a transition to clean energy is to provide utilities with incentives to change the way they do business.
- As noted in Chapter Two, one element of the nation’s general energy policy is low-cost energy. High utility rates are inconsistent with a policy favoring low-cost or reasonably priced energy. Therefore, as prices rise, utility commissions take a much harder look at the requests by utilities for rate increases. Consumer pressure to reduce rates and the reluctance on the part of regulators to raise rates, have resulted in an era of greater competition in the electricity and natural gas industries. In the electricity industry, greater competition comes in the form of new producers. In the natural gas industry, greater competition was spawned by an increased supply of natural gas. Deregulation further complicates pricing because under microeconomic theory competition should put downward pressure on prices. Deregulation, as we shall see in later chapters, has not been smooth and is continuing in fits and starts. In other words, the electric and natural gas industries are in competitive...
- In the previous three chapters, we introduced the fundamental ingredients of the regulatory state—economics, politics, and law. In this chapter, these three elements combine in the energy decisionmaking process.
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Chapter 8 Electricity 154 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Enron’s collapse, however, has little to say about energy markets in general or even hedge funds in particular. Nor should its collapse have much to do with a change in direction for energy restructuring.
- , closely. First, you can see that until the late 20th century, energy and electricity use grew in tandem with the economy. The more energy we produced and consumed the larger the economy. However, starting in the last decades of the 20th century, energy consumption and later electricity consumption began to diverge from economic growth. Second, one explanation for the divergence is that as consumers, we are beginning to pay attention to energy efficiency and that we can consume less energy per capita without a corresponding loss to the economy.
- For the first time, the Act created a federal role in electricity transmission siting decisions, long the prerogative of state-level public service commissions. Under the EPAct 2005, the DOE was required to study where in the United States existing transmission lines were most overburdened, and designate those areas as “National Interest Electricity Transmission Corridors,” or NIETCs. For proposed projects in those NIETC regions, the 2005 Act gives FERC the authority to preempt state commissions and issue a federal construction permit, if the state commission fails to act on a proposal within a year. This “backstop” siting provision responds to a concern that state commissions and state siting laws are too parochial in focus to ensure that transmission lines are built where they are needed to support the reliability of the interstate system.
- The second component involves the wider variety of energy services and products sold by utilities. Utilities will sell traditional electricity, green electricity, energy efficiency, energy efficient products, perform energy audits and provide better communications between producers and consumers and among consumer groups. Thus, the new regulatory compact will involve new rate designs which promote conservation, energy efficiency, smart consumption, and technological innovation instead of encouraging both consumption and capital expansion in traditional fossil fuel resources.
- The regulatory history of the electric utility industry addresses two sets of interrelated milestones. The first set involves industry events such as a blackout, some form of corporate behavior or activity, or a significant economic or technological shift. The second set involves the regulatory responses to such events either in the form of new legislation or new regulation. Indeed, you can best follow the history of the electric industry, or any energy industry for that matter, by paying attention to a handful of statutes, cases, and regulations and by asking: What event gave rise to those laws?
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Chapter 6 Natural Gas 116 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The general argument favoring natural gas as a “bridge” fuel to a clean energy economy is that it is cleaner than coal. Yet, shale gas drilling operations can cause air pollution from a number of sources. Diesel engines, rigs, trucks, and other equipment used in the production process emit greenhouse gases. Gas leakage, especially methane leakage, from all of these activities has the potential for significant environmental harm.
- Title III of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA), also part of the National Energy Act, applied to natural gas rate design issues. In order to conserve energy, increase the efficient use of facilities and resources, and promote equitable rates to consumers, state regulatory agencies and nonregulated gas utilities, as defined in PURPA, were required to hold hearings to consider rate design standards proposed by the Act. At the conclusion of the hearings the standards were to be adopted “if and to the extent * * * that such adoption is appropriate and is consistent with otherwise applicable state law.”
- Natural gas is an extremely important part of our nation’s energy economy accounting for about a third of all energy consumed in the United States. Natural gas is vital for sectors of the economy. Residentially and commercially, it is used mostly for heating and cooking. In the industrial sector, natural gas is used to produce steel, glass, paper, chemicals and other products. Most significantly, however, it is an increasing source for electricity production. Further, given recent domestic discoveries, natural gas is growing in importance because it is abundant and it is a relatively clean burning fuel.
- Lincoln L. Davies & Joseph P. Tomain, Energy Law in the United States of America
- Further both industries grew tremendously after World War II until the mid-1960s. While both industries continue to expand, that growth is occurring at a slower rate. Because of the increased use of natural gas for electricity generation, natural gas consumption is expected to increase more than 50% between 2015 and 2040. Energy Information Administration,
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Chapter 7 Coal 99 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Coal is our nation’s most abundant source of energy. Ninety percent of the coal consumed in the United States is used as fuel for plants generating electricity. The remainder is used as primary fuel in particular industries such as steel production and glass manufacturing. Because coal is a useful substitute for other fuels such as oil, nuclear power, and natural gas, in the past, there was a movement toward having energy users convert from other resources to coal. In the case of oil, coal conversion was intended to reduce dependence on foreign oil. In the case of nuclear power, conversion of coal was intended to reduce the risk of nuclear accidents. Nevertheless, the relative abundance of this energy fuel is significantly offset by its health, environmental, and economic problems.
- Coal can be described in three words—abundant, dirty, and dangerous. These three words not only describe the resource, they fairly well dictate the law and policies that affect the regulation of the industry. Briefly regarding abundance, coal accounts for about a third of the energy produced in the United States and accounts for about one-half of the electricity produced although those numbers are declining. Coal extraction, production, and use also have significant negative external effects on the environment. Finally, coal mining is dangerous to human health and can be fatal. The Explosion of Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia killed 29 workers; constituted the worst mining disaster in four decades; and sent its CEO, Don Blankenship, to jail.
- The DOE Office of Fossil Energy has received $3.4 billion from the ARRA for clean coal research and development. The Office has funded three large-scale demonstration projects that were expected to capture and store a total of 6.5 million tons of CO2 per year and the demonstration phase was expected to be completed in 2015. Energy.gov, Office of Fossil Energy,
- The SMCRA is one of the most comprehensive federal regulations on land use. Coal mining, particularly when using “surface” or “strip” mining techniques, has a significant detrimental impact on the land and environment. The SMCRA was signed by President Jimmy Carter after seven years of debate in Congress. Congress believed that federal legislation was necessary to establish minimum nationwide standards, insuring that competition among coal producers would not be used to induce states to lower environmental standards or fail to enforce existing laws. Although concerns were raised over how well a uniform standard could be applied to varied regions, Congress passed the SMCRA to “assure that the coal supply essential to the Nation’s energy requirements, and to its economic and social well-being is provided and strike a balance between protection of the environment and agricultural productivity and the Nation’s need for coal as an essential source of energy.”
- At its production height in 2008, the United States produced roughly 1,200 million short tons of coal annually most of which was used for the production of electricity as shown below in Figures 1 and 2. DOE
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Chapter 5 Oil 109 results (showing 5 best matches)
- In this century, oil markets have been uneven and today we are experience an oil glut. As recently as June 2008, oil prices hit $151.72 per barrel dipping to low $28.50 per barrel in January 2016 leveling off to about $40 a barrel in the summer of 2016. The direct consequence of low oil prices is a reduction in drilling and exploration. U.S. Energy Information Administration,
- The most significant development regarding the transfer of power from private to government hands was the formation of OPEC and its exercise of its power with the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973. In that year, several Arab nations in protest of the United States’ support of Israel in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, instituted an oil embargo against the United States. The embargo came at a time when the United States was experiencing a decline in its domestic oil production and increasing demand. The embargo was accompanied by a decrease in OPEC production, which created oil shortages and price increases. Prices more than tripled from a 1973 average of $12 per barrel to over $40 per barrel. The embargo lasted approximately six months after which U.S. oil imports increased from nearly 26% in 1973 to 36% in 1977. The sharp increase in energy prices was widely considered to be a major cause of an economic recession that the country experienced in the mid-1970s. The embargo was also the occasion for...
- Congress, in conjunction with President Carter’s 1979 initiation of a gradual phased decontrol of oil and oil products, enacted the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act of 1980, , in order to tax a fair share of the additional revenues received by oil producers and royalty owners as a result of oil price decontrols. The revenue raised by the tax was to be used for tax incentives to encourage energy conservation and production of alternate energy sources together with assistance to lower-income households to help them cope with higher energy prices. The constitutionality of the WPT and its exemptions was challenged and the statute was upheld in
- The Commission concluded in forceful terms. The disaster was the fault of the oil industry and its government overseers and has raised serious questions about the nation’s ability to deal with and respond to significant energy and environmental crises. The Report also concluded that drilling in the Gulf and in other deep water areas can be done safely but only if a regulatory transformation occurs. Further, as part of those transformative efforts, the country must seriously reassess its pattern of its production and use of energy. The nation, the Report continues, “must begin a transition to a cleaner, more energy-efficient future. . . . Otherwise, the nation’s security and well-being will be increasingly dependent on diminishing supplies of nonrenewable resources, and even more dependent on supplies from foreign states.”
- In short, the new world of oil is one in which price volatility attracts our attention. Price volatility is important not only to speculators and hedge fund managers, it is important to ordinary consumers and as well as businesses of any size because the price of energy impacts all budgets. Price volatility is also a matter of concern in the oil futures markets which daily trade more than 10 times a single day’s consumption. Price volatility means higher risk to investors and instability for consumers thus threatening energy markets and world economies. Thus, the next chapter of the oil story involves price volatility; increasing demand by the growing economies of India and China; increased security concerns; renewed environmental awareness; a weakened OPEC; the US as an oil exporter and less dependent on oil imports; and, the continuing search for new sources.
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Center Title 2 results
Title Page 3 results
Index 332 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Energy policy, First Law of Thermodynamics, 52–53
- Energy policy, Second Law of Thermodynamics, 53
- Conservation, energy efficiency and energy intensity, 530, 553–563
- Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Technology Competitiveness Act of 1989, 533
- Solar Energy and Energy Conservation Act of 1980, 89
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Outline 50 results (showing 5 best matches)
Table of Cases 19 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Envt’l Def. Fund. v. Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, 348
- Anker Energy Corp. v. Consolidated Coal Co., 339
- Dominion Energy Brayton Point, LLC v. Johnson, 120
- Energy Transportation Systems, Inc. Pipeline Project v. Missouri, 362
- Energy Transportation Systems, Inc. v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 361
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WEST ACADEMIC PUBLISHING’S LAW SCHOOL ADVISORY BOARD 11 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Distinguished University Professor, Frank R. Strong Chair in LawMichael E. Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University
- Robert A. Sullivan Professor of Law Emeritus,
- Professor of Law Emeritus, University of San Diego Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Michigan
- Professor of Law, Chancellor and Dean Emeritus, University of California, Hastings College of the Law
- Professor of Law, Yale Law School
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- Publication Date: November 23rd, 2016
- ISBN: 9781634607117
- Subject: Energy Law
- Series: Nutshells
- Type: Overviews
- Description: This title addresses the component parts of the energy fuel cycle, as well as the market and government policies that oversee it. This Nutshell describes in detail the country’s traditional energy policy and also discusses the current challenges that confront it. Chapters cover the individual natural resources used to produce energy and the book concludes with the development of a clean energy policy for the future.
