LAW 383 - The Laws of Clean Energy

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This course will start with the basic principles of electricity and the industry, which are necessary to understand the cases and controversies surrounding Clean Energy. These basics will include: the three functions of electricity (generation, distribution, transmission) and how each is governed by different sets of law; the different types of generation, and the non-difference between “clean” and “dirty” energy, what dispatchable and non-dispatchable resources are; how electric utilities are regulated (vertically integrated monopoly, unregulated competitive supplier). With this foundational understanding, we will review the cases and controversies involving several types of “clean” energy resources. These will include: dormant commerce clause concerns raised by laws that give preference to in-state renewable resources; special treatment in state statutes for nuclear plants that would otherwise shut down due to market forces (reviewing recent federal court decisions in Illinois and NY); the zoning and land use challenges to large solar farms (using several in Virginia as examples); property rights issues involving Hydro facilities (specifically Smith Mountain Lake); environmental issues related to wind farms and how those have been mitigated; carbon regulation and the obstacles to using only renewable resources. The course will also include discussion of the different roles lawyers play in the clean energy realm, such as transactional lawyers that help investment banks gain tax equity in wind farms; state and federal administrative lawyers; and lawyers that focus on the actual development of generation facilities.