Fla. L. Rev. Forum

Stephen Rose, Vivek Bhandari, and Kimberley Mullins
A Response to Professor Mormann’s Clean Energy Federalism
Response to Felix Mormann, Clean Energy Federalism

Professor Felix Mormann’s work to differentiate clean energy federalism from environmental federalism in his paper, “Clean Energy Federalism,” is important. These two theoretical frameworks are similar, but clean energy federalism incorporates a nuanced understanding of the energy system and renewable resources. Professor Mormann illustrates the difference by analyzing a proposed subsidy scheme that aims to reduce the cost of renewable electricity by reducing risk to investors. He offers two ways to allocate these risks between utilities and ratepayers. We agree with Professor Mormann’s assessment that utilities “have substantial experience with these types of markets and possess the resources and expertise to navigate them successfully.” However, utilities may not always be able to use REC markets to compensate for overly-generous FITs. Read more.