Ari Peskoe – Page 50 – Environmental and Energy Law Program

Research Areas

Bio

Ari has written extensively about electricity regulation, on issues ranging from rooftop solar to constitutional challenges to states’ energy laws. Prior to the Electricity Law Initiative, he was an associate at a law firm in Washington, D.C., where he litigated before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about the Western Energy Crisis. Before that, Ari was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana and spent two years trying to bring the 2012 Olympics to New York. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in electrical engineering and business.

Electricity Law Initiative

State Power Project

Featured

Research Paper Electricity Law

Extracting Profits from the Public: How Utility Ratepayers Are Paying for Big Tech’s Power

New paper from the Harvard Electricity Law Initiative uncovers how utilities are forcing ratepayers to fund discounted rates for data centers.

Latest

In the Media
PoliticoPro (subscription only)

A Federal Renewable Energy Commission? Democrats flirt with overhaul of FERC

“I could imagine doing [climate legislation] in such a way where you don’t need to reform FERC,” said Ari Peskoe, Director of the Harvard Electricity Law Initiative. “If there was just a national [renewable energy standard], you would just need someone to make sure utilities are complying. That could be FERC, but it could also be [the Department of Energy] or EPA as well.”

December 19, 2019

In the Media
Utility Dive

Massachusetts AG Healey stokes grassroots effort for clean energy market rules in ISO-NE

“It is not easy to engage on these issues, they’re very technical,” Ari Peskoe, director of Harvard University’s Electricity Law Initiative, told Utility Dive. “A first step is just making people aware of the existence of this organization.”

December 16, 2019

In the Media
Utility Dive

Renewables, legal groups challenge FERC’s authority to upend PURPA

PURPA acted as a “backstop” for QFs in non-market regions, said Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School, on Twitter. “FERC’s proposal would reduce competition in these regions, reinforce utility dominance, and harm innovation.”

December 9, 2019

In the Media
S&P Global

FERC’s proposed PURPA changes spark fierce debate over rates for renewables

Meanwhile, comments submitted by Harvard University’s Electricity Law Initiative argued that the NOPR “pays lip service” to PURPA’s requirement that the commission issue rules it “determines necessary to encourage” the development of QFs. “The commission suggests that in response to industry changes it may divorce the statute from its plain meaning and issue rules that will restrain QF growth,” Harvard said. “But Congress’s mandate to the commission is not contingent on industry conditions and does not expire.” (FERC docket RM19-15)

December 9, 2019

In the Media
Politico

Rick Perry dances toward the exits

“It was not a serious document,” Harvard Electricity Law Initiative Director Ari Peskoe said of the proposal. He added that just by filing the plan, “DOE required the entire industry to waste tens of millions of dollars responding to a proposal that was [dead on arrival].”

December 2, 2019

In the Media
S&P Global

FERC authority over carbon pricing in power markets may soon be put to test

Ari Peskoe, director of the Harvard Electricity Law Initiative, suggested that such filings could run into trouble if stakeholders view a proposal to price carbon as expanding too far beyond the RTO’s core mission, particularly if the RTO sets the price.

October 23, 2019

In the Media
RTO Insider

EBA Panelists Debate Role of FERC in Regulating Carbon

Panel moderator Ari Peskoe, director of Harvard Law School’s Electricity Law Initiative, wondered if FERC could rule the ISO expanded too far beyond…

October 23, 2019

In the Media
Law360

FERC Says Its Authority Preempts New Hampshire Power Law

Ari Peskoe, the director of Electricity Law Initiatives at Harvard Law School, told Law360 it is rare a state so blatantly sets a wholesale rate.

September 24, 2019

In the Media
PoliticoPro (subscription only)

FERC’s Glick ‘mistakenly’ violated Trump ethics pledge

Glick’s statement of his ethics violation includes a memo and emails from Beamon detailing their correspondences about the erroneous ethics guidance. That stands in contrast to McNamee, whose office has only released his White House waiver, said Ari Peskoe, director of the Harvard Electricity Law Initiative.

September 17, 2019