2016 J.B and Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law Symposium:

The Electricity Mix of the Future Environment, Economics, and Governance 

The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) will convene its annual J.B. & Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law Symposium on March 10-11, 2016.  This Symposium will focus on environmental, economic, and governance issues for the electricity mix in the coming two-to-three decades.  The two-day Symposium will bring together a multi-disciplinary group of experts for a series of panels and discussions structured around the following issues:

(1) Environmental attributes of electricity fuels and their substitutes are not directly or consistently valued across the spectrum of wholesale markets, regional power pools, and state retail rates.  Can (and should) electricity markets ever be up to the task of incorporating environmental attributes?  What legal and governance changes would be necessary to facilitate this change, if it were to be a policy option?  At the retail level, what options are available to states, considering both the Clean Power Plan and the preemptive reach of the Federal Power Act?

(2) Many regulatory decisions are informed by modeling, as evidenced by EPA’s models accompanying the Clean Power Plan.  What do various models of the electricity mix of the future predict, and how much uncertainty is embedded in those predictions? To what extent can policymakers rely on these models, and what caveats should they consider in developing next steps?  How can we structure legal regimes that are sufficiently adaptive to new circumstances to best optimize electricity resources, when much of our energy infrastructure requires very long-term planning and significant capital investments?

(3) Finally, many of the questions raised above relate to the traditional grid infrastructure.  What are the implications of distributed generation, demand response, and storage in the next several decades? As new state policies regarding these electricity services emerge, what predictions can be made regarding the need for traditional generation, infrastructure, and governance? Are our current federal regulatory regimes sufficiently flexible to account for these electricity services? Is widespread experimentation at the state level preferable?

Register Now! 

Agenda

March 10

8:30 - 9:00 AM: Registration and continental breakfast

9:00 - 9:45 AM: Welcome and Opening Address

• Charles A. Berardesco, North American Electric Reliability Corporation

9:45 - 11:00 AM: The Role of the State in Setting the Future Energy Mix

• Jonas J. Monast, Duke University 
• Adrienne Thompson, GW Law
• Steven Weissman, UC Berkeley 

11:00 - 11:15 AM: Break

11:15 AM - 12:20 PM: The Role of the State, Continued

• Steven Ferrey, Suffolk University 
• Heather E. Payne, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
• Amy L. Stein, University of Florida Levin 
• Jamie Van Nostrand, West Virginia University

12:20 - 1:15 PM: Lunch

1:15 - 1:30 PM: Break

1:30 - 1:50 PM: Presentation of the Jamie Grodsky Prize for Environmental
Scholarship

1:50 - 3:15 PM: Forecasting the Future 

• Michael Wara, Stanford University
• Kipp Coddington, University of Wyoming 

3:15 - 3:30 PM:  Break

3:30 - 5:00 PM: Facilitating the Electricity Mix: Transmission and Land Use Issues

• Jessica Owley, SUNY Buffalo 
• Jim Rossi, Vanderbilt University 
• Hari Osofsky, University of Minnesota

March 11

8:30 - 9:00 AM: Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 - 10:30 AM: The Federal Role in Determining the Future Electricity Mix

• Lincoln L. Davies, University of Utah 
• Shi-Ling Hsu, Florida State University & James Handley
• David B. Spence, University of Texas at Austin

10:30 - 10:45 AM: Break

10:45 AM - 12:15 PM: Who Gets to Decide: Jurisdictional Issues

• Joel B. Eisen, University of Richmond 
• Felix Mormann, University of Miami 
• Richard J. Pierce, GW Law

12:15 - 12:25 PM: Lunch and Presentation of the 2016 Skadden Award to the GW
Law National Energy & Sustainability Moot Court Team Recognition

12:25 - 1:20 PM:  Featured Speaker

• Susan N. Kelly, President and CEO, American Public Power Association

1:20 - 1:30 PM: Break

1:30 - 3:30 PM: Technology for the Future Electricity Mix

• Frederick H. Morse, Morse Associates, Inc. (Concentrated Solar)
• Greg Poulos, EnerNOC, Inc. (Demand Response)
• Jeff Riles, Enel Green Power North America, Inc. (Wind)
• Matt Roberts, Executive Director, Energy Storage Association (Storage)
• Dan Stenger, Hogan Lovells (Small Modular Reactors)

3:30 - 3:45 PM: Concluding Remarks and Wrap-Up

Co-Sponsors
Environmental Law Institute
GW Journal of Energy and Environmental Law
GW Environmental Law Association