The Search for Energy Solutions Powers New Courses
Sent to your inbox every month is a document that holds clues to your state’s energy policy. Most people don’t read the fine print, but Associate Professor of Law Joshua Macey ’17 goes over his copy line by line with his class.
That information-packed page is the electricity bill, and it’s part of a lecture in “Energy Law,” one of two courses Macey is teaching this term — his first in the classroom since joining Yale Law School’s faculty4. The course focuses on the legal underpinnings of the energy systems that power the economy and make modern living possible.
Like the bill, electricity is such an ingrained part of everyday life that many people don’t think about the details. Macey does. His latest scholarship offers strategies to improve reliability of the nation’s electric grid and accelerate the transition to new sources of energy.
“The joke in energy circles is that energy is 7 to 9% of the global GDP but it’s the first 7%,” Macey said. “Nothing we do works without energy.”
Nothing we do works without energy.”
— Associate Professor Joshua Macey ’17
In “Energy Law,” students learn about the federal and state laws that govern the production, consumption, and disposal of energy resources. They also examine energy policy, which comes up when Macey shows his electricity bill. Only about 30% of the charges on the bill are for energy generation, according to Macey, with some of the remaining charges stemming from political decisions.
Students delve deeper into those state-level decisions in a second course co-taught by Macey and Kent A. Chandler, a visiting lecturer in law who recently served as the chair of Kentucky’s Public Service Commission. “Public Utility Regulation” looks at the state agencies that have authority over public utilities, the companies that sell electricity to consumers and typically have a monopoly to serve a particular region. The state commissions’ regulatory powers include approving utility rates and granting permission to build new power plants.
Natalie Kelly ’27, who worked in renewable energy development prior to law school, gained a sense that the complicated system of state and federal regulations makes it difficult for the U.S. to integrate renewable energy on a large scale.
“Professor Macey does a great job of showing how seemingly tiny legal rules or presumptions constrain our ability to creatively respond to climate change,” she said.
That point was echoed by Nathalie Chang ’27, who worked in solar energy development before law school. In that work, she saw firsthand how projects could get derailed. Chang came to law school to learn about the legal obstacles to clean energy and now sees that incentives also play a large role in moving projects forward.
“It’s been fascinating to explore the incentives that public utilities face and how crucial it is to address those incentives when considering how to transition away from carbon-intensive resources,” she said.
Jacob Love ’26, whose interest in energy started when the shale gas boom came to his hometown in Pennsylvania, said he wants to use what he learns in law school to help remove barriers that prevent Americans from accessing safe, affordable, and reliable energy. He, too, gained an understanding of the incentives that utilities face, noting that they are not always positive.
“We’re left with the distinct impression that change is needed, and that introducing greater competition in electricity markets may be a step in the right direction,” Love said.
Macey’s courses also appeal to students who plan to work in other areas of private industry. Austin Rose ’27, who is from Virginia and will be working there this summer, noted that his state is the largest data center market in the world and that electricity demand there is expected to double over the next 10 years.
“This course really helped me when applying for jobs because it so directly addresses the law behind one of the biggest business and policy issues in the Commonwealth today,” he said.
Students appreciated hearing Chandler’s real-world experience, which included having to address the influx of solar energy developers to Kentucky while contending with laws that make it more difficult to phase out fossil fuels in a coal-producing state.
For Kelly, Chandler drives home the value of state agencies and state-level advocacy in the transition to clean energy, “even if it isn’t as flashy as federal government,” Kelly said. “It’s where the real decisions get made.”
Macey stresses this point to students — though working at the federal level or for a national environmental nonprofit might be more visible, more green energy transition happens at the state level.
“If you want to have more of an impact, it is much better to do state public utility commission work,” he said. “You are making decisions about what resources get built, and so you have a direct influence on the emissions profile of the grid.”
The growing interest in energy law among environmentally minded students indicates a shift in strategy among lawyers working to protect the environment, Macey said. At one time, these lawyers would have been focused on blocking expansion of power plants that run on fossil fuels.
“But those kinds of reforms and legal tools are not suited to support deep decarbonization where we need to go,” Macey said. “It is great to have rules and regulations that reduce emissions, but ultimately, the only way to decarbonize is to build tons of clean energy and transmission.”
