Document Type
Comment
Abstract
As it stands, the progress towards fighting climate change at the national level is in disarray, and there is a complete disunity of direction and goals at the state level. This paper highlights the disunity by providing a case study of the different regulations, which affect the solar power industry across all fifty states, with a particular focus paid to net metering regulations. Through an examination of this industry, three startling conclusions will emerge. First, investor-owned utilities apply intense political pressure through lobbying efforts to maintain the current status quo of the utility industry’s economic model, which results in the disfranchisement of average citizens from profitable “green” investments. Second, because of lobbying pressure, states have adopted a myriad of approaches towards net metering regulations, thereby creating uncertainty affecting future solar investments. Third, in many instances, existing laws bar investors’ recourse to the courts; it will take innovative judicial challenges at the federal level to tackle future regulation. And fourth, the battle between solar and utility industries over the future of energy generation is just beginning, as solar storage laws are poised to be the next major front of green regulation.
First Page
129
Last Page
170
Recommended Citation
Aundene Szmolyan,
Disunity Among the United States: Navigating Net-Metering Without Getting Electrocuted,
13 J. Bus. Entrepreneurship & L.
129
(2020)
Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/jbel/vol13/iss1/5
