Energy Law: Regulating Energy Production

• Semester: Fall 2020
• Course ID: 363U
• Credit Hours: 3
• Alternate Class Unique: 27855
  Class Unique: 27856

Description

This course will be taught in person but this section will allow students entirely remote participation via Zoom.  If students require in-person or hybrid participation, they must register for the 27855 section of this course, which is identical but in-person.

This course examines in detail the federal, state and local regulatory regimes governing the production of energy in the United States, including the licensing regimes for electric generation (wind, solar, hydroelectric, nuclear and fossil-fueled) as well as the regulation of fossil fuel extraction.  Students will develop an understanding of the statutory regimes regulating coal mining, oil and gas production, fossil-fueled electricity generation, nuclear power plants, hydroelectric plants, and utility-scale wind and solar farms.  We will also address topical issues associated with the rapid technological and economic changes underway in the energy industry, including policies aimed at hastening the decarbonization of the electricity sector in an increasing number of states and municipalities, and policy conflicts associated with the growth of hydraulic fracturing to produce oil and gas.  This class will be based in the Law School, but will also be open to students in the McCombs School, the Jackson School, and the LBJ School, and will mix traditional lecture and discussion with small group work in multidisciplinary teams.  This is a companion course to (but not a prerequisite for) Energy Law:  Regulating the Sale and Delivery of Energy.  There are no prerequisites:  the course will  address the constitutional law, administrative law, technical, economic and political foundations of energy regulation as well as the content of the regulatory regimes covered.