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Utility Regulation Through Legislation: A Cautionary Tale for Legislators, Regulators, Stakeholders, and Utilities
State legislatures in the U.S. are becoming increasingly involved in utility regulation. While state utility legislation can expand regulator authority, for example in the case of renewable energy or energy efficiency standard administration, it can also reduce it. Given the challenging nature of for-profit monopoly regulation, state utility legislation often reduces regulator authority unintentionally. This editorial begins with an examination of the outcomes of state legislation related to baseload generation in the U.S. and the resulting impacts to customers, shareholders, and state economies. The record indicates that utility regulation through state legislation has caused significant economic harm, generally by encouraging for-profit utilities to make riskier investments. A description of more recent state legislation involving distribution grids is presented, along with evidence that increases in grid investment encouraged by state legislation has not improved the reliability of U.S. for-profit utilities. The authors claim that features common to state utility legislation, particularly the requirement that utilities provide investment plans to regulators in advance, practically eliminates cost disallowance risk. This, in turn, reduces regulator authority despite legislative provisions intended to protect consumers. The authors hypothesize that the practical elimination of cost disallowance risk, combined with information and expertise asymmetry among regulators and stakeholders, encourages for-profit monopoly utilities to make grid investments that are not cost effective. The editorial concludes that legislators should avoid utility regulation through legislation, thereby preserving regulator authority, whenever possible. The authors also present their fifth annual Customer Value Ranking of U.S. investor-owned electric utilities. The ranking represents a comparison of the benefits utilities deliver to customers (measured by reliability performance and customer satisfaction) to the costs customers pay (measured by O&M and capital spending per customer).
State Legislative Options to Enhance Solar Cybersecurity
One of the mitigative solutions to solar cybersecurity risks is to proactively develop legislation which can facilitate, guide, or require actionable policy and program development . Legislation can reinforce the criticality of protecting energy infrastructure from cyber threats in several ways that can have long lasting impacts . This tool outlines relevant state cybersecurity legislation examples which can apply to solar cybersecurity and can serve as frameworks for future legislation by states seeking legislative options to help mitigate these risks
Anti-smoking legislation and its effects on urinary cotinine and cadmium levels
Anti-smoking legislation has been associated with an improvement in health indicators. Since the cadmium (Cd) body burden in the general population is markedly increased by smoke exposure, we analyzed the impact of the more restrictive legislation that came into force in Spain in 2011 by measuring Cd and cotinine in first morning urine samples from 83 adults in Madrid (Spain) before (2010) and after (2011) introduction of this law. Individual pair-wise comparisons showed a reduction of creatinine corrected Cotinine and Cd levels for non-active smokers, i. e. those which urinary cotinine levels are below 50 μg/L. After the application of the stricter law, cotinine levels in urine only decreased in non-active smokers who self-reported not to be exposed to second-hand smoke. The reduction in second hand smoke exposure was significantly higher in weekends (Friday to Sunday) than in working days (Monday to Thursday). The decrease in U-Cd was highly significant in non-active smokers and, in general, correlated with lower creatinine excretion. Therefore correction by creatinine could bias urinary Cd results, at least for cotinine levels higher than 500 μg/L. The biochemical/toxicological benefits detected herein support the stricter application of anti-smoking legislation and emphasize the need to raise the awareness of the population as regards exposure at home.
Fragmentary provisions for uncertainty disclosure and consideration in EA legislation, regulations and guidelines and the need for improvement
The consideration and disclosure of uncertainties is fundamental to a credible EA process, but little is known about the nature and type of requirements and guidance available to proponents, practitioners and decision makers about how to deal with uncertainties. This paper examines the provisions for considering and disclosing uncertainties in EA. Methods are based on a comparative review of uncertainty provisions in EA legislation, regulations and guidance documents under Canadian federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions. Results show 10 types of provisions applied at different stages of the EA process with considerable jurisdictional variability and incoherence. The most common provision was that decision makers can request that project proponents provide more information, followed by the preparation of contingency plans, and that practitioners document their assumptions about data reliability. Most of these provisions were found in guidelines, versus legislation or regulations; and most addressed impact management, with very few provisions for addressing uncertainty during EA review and decision making. Current practices of uncertainty (non)disclosure and (non)consideration in EA can be explained, in part, by the superficial nature and limited extent of the requirements and guidance made available to EA practitioners, proponents, and decision makers. The existing requirements placed on proponents and practitioners to disclose and consider uncertainties are necessary, but insufficient. Stronger, more coherent and transparent requirements for those tasked with EA review and decision making to consider uncertainty information when disclosed, and the development of practical guidance on how to do so, are needed. - Highlights: •Uncertainty disclosure requirements in EA are examined. •Practitioners are often suggested to disclose uncertainties in their EAs. •Most provisions for uncertainty disclosure in EA are non-mandatory, guidelines. •There are few provisions for decision makers to consider uncertainty when disclosed. •Stronger, more coherent and transparent requirements are needed.
Assessing the Current State of U.S. Energy Equity Regulation and Legislation (2024 Update) [Slides]
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) partnered with E9 Insight (E9) to update the 2022 database of executive, legislative, and regulatory actions focusing on energy equity and directed at electricity and natural gas utilities. The resulting database contains 307 energy equity actions, which consist of documents (e.g., bills, dockets, and executive orders) identified through keyword searches associated with energy equity. Based on our review, almost half of states (32 + DC) were taking some sort of action on energy equity (i.e., executive order, PUC activity, agency plan, or executive bill). In the report, we explored temporal trends to track state actions over time across regions, outcomes, equity tenets, and objectives. We also explored what drivers led to what outcomes. Drivers were organized into legislative, regulatory, executive, and stakeholder-driven.
The Legislative and Regulatory Histories Related to Greater-Than-Class-C Low-Level Radioactive Waste - 18602
The history surrounding the legislative and regulatory developments regarding Greater-Than-Class C Low Level Radioactive Waste (GTCC LLW) is both interesting and complex. On October 25, 1978, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking pertaining to the development of regulations for the land disposal of LLW. This regulation was one of the first undertaken by NRC since its inception pursuant to the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974. Given the problematic challenges that many States were facing with releases of radioactivity from waste disposal facilities at the time, the technical bases supporting this rulemaking were both forward-thinking and comprehensive. The rule included a waste classification system that was tiered in four waste classes: Class A, B, C and GTCC LLW. On December 27, 1982, the NRC finalized the requirements for disposing of these classes of radioactive waste in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 61 (10 CFR 61). The NRC established the waste classification system to protect both members of the public and individuals that may someday inadvertently intrude in the waste placed in the disposal facility after expiration of the institutional control period. This waste classification was developed to ensure that radiation doses to members of the public and an inadvertent intruder would not exceed 0.25 mSv y{sup -1} (25 mrem y{sup -1}) or 5.0 mSv y{sup -1} (500 mrem y{sup -1}), respectively. At the time the regulation was promulgated, GTCC LLW was considered generally not suitable for near surface disposal. It was recognized that disposal of GTCC LLW would require disposal technologies having greater confinement capacity or protection than 'normal' near-surface disposal. In 1980 Congress enacted the Low-Level Waste Policy Act of 1980, as amended in 1985 (LLWPAA of 1985) that assigned responsibility of disposing of GTCC LLW generated in the commercial sector or owned or generated by the federal government to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). At the time States were having difficulties in developing disposal facilities within the time constraints mandated in the LLWPA of 1980. Therefore, Congress believed that if DOE was assigned responsibility of developing disposal facilities for GTCC LLW, then the States would be more likely to develop new LLW disposal facilities. Congress also assigned the NRC with the responsibility to license the disposal of GTCC LLW generated or owned by the federal government or by the commercial sector. Lastly, Congress changed the definition of LLW that had been defined in the LLWPA of 1980 removing the 'transuranic' exclusionary language. Four years later, on May 25, 1989, the NRC promulgated its regulation needed to implement the mandates specified in the LLWPAA of 1985. The NRC revised 10 CFR 61.55 specifying that the NRC was responsible for licensing the disposal of GTCC LLW. However, it inadvertently did not revise the definition of LLW needed to remove the 'transuranic' exclusionary language in this rulemaking consistent with the LLWPAA of 1985. This seemingly inconsequential omission was not discovered until a Petition for Rulemaking was filed in Texas in July 2014. Moreover, this omission has effectively orphaned waste with certain transuranic radionuclides with concentrations exceeding 100 nanocuries per gram (100 nCi/g). In December 2015, the NRC Commissioners directed its staff to move forward with a rulemaking to resolve this issue and to perform a regulatory analysis to determine whether or not an Agreement State can license the disposal of GTCC LLW pursuant to Section 274 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. The paper will discuss past and current legislation, rulemaking, and regulatory developments pertaining to resolving the transuranic waste discrepancy and providing a pathway to disposition GTCC LLW. (authors)
Impact of California Computed Tomography Dose Legislation: Survey of Radiologists
Highly publicized accounts of radiation overdose from computed tomography (CT) in both children and adults prompted legislation in California regulating CT dose. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the law (codified in Senate Bill [SB] 1237) on California radiologist practice patterns and understanding of CT dose.
Obligation of occupational safety and health (OSH) legislation by designers and manufacturers: Perception of enforcement officers
Designers and manufacturers of plants are responsible to design or redesign the process, product and workplace with consideration of eliminating hazards or controlling risks as early as possible at design stage.The purpose of this paper is to determine the perception of enforcement officers towards compliance and implementation of OSH legislation by the designers and manufacturers of plant.The research partners was a goverment department that enforce the related OSH laws to designers and manufacturers of the plant. A total of 59 technical staffs were surveyed together with examination of the sekunder data from the department to evaluate overall OSH legal obligation by the industries. This study demonstrate how OSH regulators play the roles to influence the industries to perform better in OSH.
Lessons in Commercial PACE Leadership: The Path from Legislation to Launch
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing enables building owners to finance energy efficiency, renewable energy, and, in some states, non-energy building improvements through a voluntary special assessment on their properties. For commercial buildings, there are many benefits to using Commercial PACE (C-PACE) financing. Still, using C-PACE financing is a multi-step process and involves diverse stakeholders (see Figure ES-1 for a simplified overview), and the process may vary depending on the state and policy context. The primary audience for this report, Lessons in Commercial PACE Leadership, is state and local decision makers that seek an informed, objective perspective of what it takes to launch a C-PACE program. The report is specifically for those states with enabling legislation and program sponsors (i.e., state or local governments) that are looking to launch or join a C-PACE program. The report is a starting point for understanding what approaches have worked to establish successful C-PACE programs. It examines the experience of programs across the country and provides insights for making the process smoother, and hopefully less cost and time-intensive, for new state and local governments sponsoring C-PACE programs. The report also provides a roadmap to key decision points on the path to setting up a program — the different paths taken and program models employed by those who have blazed the trail. The report is organized into three sections describing the decision points involved, options and considerations, and experience from the field.
Assessing the Current State of U.S. Energy Equity Regulation and Legislation [Slides]
This report examined state energy equity actions from January 2020 to July 2022. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory partnered with E9 Insight to screen executive, legislative, and regulatory actions focusing on energy equity. A total of 95 actions were identified across 22 states and Washington, DC. Energy equity was most associated with resource planning, decarbonization, and energy efficiency regulatory focus areas. States tended to focus on distributive and procedural justice tenets over recognition and restorative justice tenets. The review also suggested that energy equity metrics are in nascent stages; most outcomes identified in equity actions did not have corresponding metrics. Affordability and energy burden were identified as metrics in multiple cases and appeared in several different forms.
Assessing the Current State of U.S. Energy Equity Regulation and Legislation [Slides]
This report examined state energy equity actions from January 2020 to July 2022. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory partnered with E9 Insight to screen executive, legislative, and regulatory actions focusing on energy equity. A total of 95 actions were identified across 22 states and Washington, DC. Energy equity was most associated with resource planning, decarbonization, and energy efficiency regulatory focus areas. States tended to focus on distributive and procedural justice tenets over recognition and restorative justice tenets. The review also suggested that energy equity metrics are in nascent stages; most outcomes identified in equity actions did not have corresponding metrics. Affordability and energy burden were identified as metrics in multiple cases and appeared in several different forms.
Summary of Carbon Storage Incentives and Potential Legislation: East Sub-Basin Project Task 3.1 Business and Financial Case Study
The CarbonSAFE Illinois – East Sub-Basin project is conducting a pre-feasibility assessment for commercial-scale CO2 geological storage complexes. The project aims to identify sites capable of storing more than 50 million tons of industrially-sourced CO2. To support the business development assessment of the economic viability of potential sites in the East Sub-Basin and explore conditions under which a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project therein might be revenue positive, this document provides a summary of carbon storage incentives and legislation of potential relevance to the project.
Association Between Certificate of Need Legislation and Radiation Therapy Use Among Elderly Patients With Early Cancers
No abstract prepared.
Progressing quality control in environmental impact assessment beyond legislative compliance: An evaluation of the IEMA EIA Quality Mark certification scheme
The effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) systems is contingent on a number of control mechanisms: procedural; judicial; evaluative; public and government agency; professional; and development aid agency. If we assume that procedural and judicial controls are guaranteed in developed EIA systems, then progressing effectiveness towards an acceptable level depends on improving the performance of other control mechanisms over time. These other control mechanisms are either absent, or are typically centrally controlled, requiring public finances; this we argue is an unpopular model in times of greater Government austerity. Here we evaluate a market-based mechanism for improving the performance of evaluative and professional control mechanisms, the UK Institute of Environmental Management and Assessments' EIA Quality Mark. We do this by defining dimensions of effectiveness for the purposes of our evaluation, and by identifying international examples of the approaches taken to delivering the other control measures to validate the approach taken in the EIA Quality Mark. We then evaluate the EIA Quality Mark, when used in combination with legal procedures and an active judiciary, against the effectiveness dimensions and use time-series analysis of registrant data to examine its ability to progress practice. We conclude that the EIA Quality Mark has merit as a model for a market-based mechanism, and may prove a more financially palatable approach for delivering effective EIA in mature systems in countries that lack centralised agency oversight. It may, therefore, be of particular interest to some Member States of the European Union for ensuring forthcoming certification requirements stemming from recent amendments to the EIA Directive. - Highlights: • Quality control mechanisms in EIA are identified. • Effectiveness of EIA is conceptualised for evaluation purposes. • The UK IEMA EIA Quality Mark is introduced as a market-based mechanism. • The EIA Quality Mark is found to progress quality in many, but not all, areas.
Legislation-induced planning of waste processing infrastructure: A case study of the Czech Republic
Not Available
Norms, Standards, and Legislation for Fast Pyrolysis Bio-oils from Lignocellulosic Biomass
Fast pyrolysis of woody biomass is close to full maturity, with first-of-its-kind commercial size installations for fuel production being commissioned in Finland (Fortum) and in The Netherlands (Empyro), and in the design phase in Brazil (Ensyn). In the industrial-scale combustion tests, the use of fast pyrolysis bio-oil (FPBO) has been demonstrated to be a viable option to replace heavy fuel oil in district heating applications. Commercially usable district heating boilers and burners suitable for FPBO are available. There is research on diesel-engine and gas-turbine applications but, so far, no proven demonstrations. FPBO is completely different from mineral oils; hence, standards are needed. Analytical methods have been systematically validated and modifications to the standards as well as completely new methods have been made. Two ASTM burner fuel standards already exist and European boiler fuel grades are being developed under CEN. The focus on CEN standardization is on boiler use, because of its commercial readiness.
Lessons in Commercial PACE Leadership: The Path from Legislation to Launch
This resource from the U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory aims to fast track the set-up of commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) programs for state and local governments by capturing the lessons learned from leaders.