POWERING AMERICA: LAW, POLICY & TRANSACTIONS IN THE ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY.
This three-credit seminar course will survey the most prominent current legal issues affecting the electric power industry. Taught by two practicing attorneys - the Executive VP and General Counsel of Energy Future Holdings, the largest utility in Texas, and the head of the Mergers & Acquisitions group at Vinson & Elkins, the course will explore real world examples of M&A transactions in the industry, the financing and development of power plants, and the rate cases by which utility rates are determined. Classes will include a two-session case study of the TXU buyout taught by lawyers who led the transaction, a session on climate change, environmental regulation, and the political and economic implications of varying regulatory schemes, and an introduction to project finance, including a case study of a prominent wind power project in the Texas Panhandle.
The class will begin with a history and overview of the electric industry both nationally and in Texas and will include a grounding in the primary federal and state statutes that govern the industry. We will move quickly into actual case studies of transactions, rate cases, and project development, and we will conclude with a series of presentations on the outlook for regulatory change in the industry and the implications for electric utilities and the related legal practices. Classes will include a discussion of both traditional power generation as well as clean-tech, renewables, and nuclear power. A number of our class meetings will feature prominent guest speakers who work in and provide counsel to the electric power industry.
Walters, Robert C
Diffen, Rebecca H.