Electricity Law Initiative

The electricity sector is subject to comprehensive regulation through an interlocked federal-state framework. This legal architecture was written generations ago, and many assumptions embedded in these century-old laws no longer hold true.

The Electricity Law Initiative of the Environmental & Energy Law Program looks for opportunities to align the electricity sector’s legal foundation with modern clean energy technologies and business models. We advance clean energy by informing public policy discussions with rigorous research and innovative legal arguments.

The bulk of our work in this area falls into three interrelated programs: State Power Project, Unlocking Distributed Energy Resources, and Catalyzing Transmission Development. We have also consolidated all of our filings at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Each filing is also listed under the relevant issue area. A portion of our work does not fit into these categories and is included in the Additional ELI Work section.