LW387

Traditional energy law includes private law, price regulation, and other regulatory laws that govern extraction, storage, transportation, and refining of energy minerals (coal, oil, gas, uranium), electrical power generation and distribution, natural gas production and distribution, hydroelectric and nuclear licensing and energy use in industrial and transportation sectors. The class will cover those subjects; however this is not your grandmothers energy law class. The present and future of energy law is changing rapidly, perhaps faster than any other area of law. Energy lawyers cannot simply rely on well-defined bodies of law regarding oil and gas leases, unitization agreements, state public utility regulation, surface coal reclamation, rights-of-way over federal land, and FERC hydroelectric licenses to answer client questions, make convincing legal arguments, and assist their clients in deals. They must understand complex institutional relationships, be able to deal in a fluid legal and policy environment,and have the ability to fluently articulate client interests in terms of public policy goals and regulatory rationales such as economic efficiency, sustainability, supply security, universal affordable access, recapturing unearned monopoly profits, and maintaining ecosystem services. Finally, to avoid themselves becoming fossilized organic matter, energy lawyers must understand the forces driving energy law in the 21st century; rapid scientific and technological advances; geopolitical power shifts and terrorism; the global carbon cycle, global warming, effects of regional climate change, and adaptation; the peak oil debate and other aspects of resource supply dynamics; liberalization and deregulation of energy markets; globalization and multinational corporate behavior; corporate social responsibility, shifting investor expectations and global financier demands; international commitments to alleviate extreme poverty and increasingly dynamic economic growth in India, China, and other major energy markets. The class is designed to prepare those who are consider a practice related to energy law, environmental law or natural resources law as well as providing essential background on critical energy issues for all lawyers.

All Years

Spring Semester