Substantialreductions in global power sector emissions will be needed by midcentury to
avoid significant disruption of the climate system. Achieving these reductions
will require greatly increased levels of financing, technological innovation,
and policy reform. In the United States, the scale and complexity of the
overall challenge have raised important questions regarding prevailing
regulatory and business models, with much scrutiny directed at the traditional
practice of public utility regulation. Recognizing the many valid criticisms leveled
against public utility regulation and the important questions raised about the
viability of traditional utility business models, particularly in the face of
substantial growth in distributed energy resources, this talk argues that a
revitalized and expanded notion of public utility has a critical role to play
in efforts to decarbonize the power sector in the United States. The talk will
trace the history of public utility (in concept and practice) over the last
century, the problems embedded in current regulatory and business models, and
the prospects for reforming such models in the face of rapid technological
change and growing decarbonization imperatives. The central claim is that the
overall scale, complexity, and sequencing of investments needed to decarbonize
the power sector over the coming decades (however it comes to be organized)
calls for a broad notion of public utility that draws from earlier
understandings of the concept and provides an important foundation for efforts
to govern a power system that is increasingly complex, participatory, and
intelligent, and for managing the sustained, collective effort to channel
investment and behavior in ways necessary to realize a low-carbon future.
The
talk will draw from a recent paper and some ongoing work. The paper is here if
people are interested:Â Public Utility and the Low Carbon Future, 61Â UCLAÂ L. Rev.1614 (2014).
 Lunch
will be provided.Â