regulatory
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Legal & Regulatory
Looking Back at 2025 to Look Forward for 2026: Navigating Policy Shifts and Market Surges
The past year saw a multitude of factors driving up electricity prices, including rapid growth in electricity demand, supply chain tightness, deployment delays for transmission and production projects, and an uncertain political and permitting climate. We expect all of these trends to continue in 2026. Changing economics have turned the justification for project development in […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Delivering Nuclear Energy: Promise vs. Regulatory Reality
In the race to decarbonize and secure America’s energy future, nuclear power is once again in the spotlight. From advanced reactors to fusion breakthroughs, the promise of nuclear energy is clear.
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Data Centers
Early-Stage Risk Mitigation—Essential Element for Data Center Financing
Lenders and investors are scrutinizing data center projects closely. Identifying and mitigating risks early helps attract investors and reduce financing costs. Clear documentation and realistic timelines are essential to securing financing. Land Control—The Foundation of Success: Land remains the cornerstone of any data center development. Verifying land control ensures the project’s legal and physical foundation […]
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Point-Counterpoint
Welcome to the Jungle: We Got FEOC (and Games)
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act introduced sweeping changes to the Internal Revenue Code, but some of the most impactful changes for the renewable energy and fuels industries are the foreign entity of concern rules (FEOC) rules. These rules present real challenges for project owners, but they are not relevant for facilities that begin construction […]
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Commentary
Uncertainty Gives Way to Urgency: Latest Treasury Guidance Signals the Time is Now to Get Solar Projects Underway
Ever since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) first surfaced, it has been widely portrayed as an existential threat to the renewable energy transition. From boardrooms to project sites, developers braced for the worst—expecting a wave of regulatory shifts that could undermine years of progress in clean energy deployment. However, with the latest guidance from the Treasury Department released this August, uncertainty has been replaced by urgency—signaling that the time is now for decision-makers to get moving on their much-needed solar initiatives.
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Legal & Regulatory
How Utilities Need to Prepare for a Landscape Driven by Regulatory Shifts
As utility leaders look to manage the ever-growing volatility in the industry, they also need to prepare for a shifting regulatory landscape that could bring unprecedented competition.
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Legal & Regulatory
Navigating the Property Tax Maze: Why Utilities and Energy Companies Need Smarter Solutions
In today’s business climate, where uncertainty is the only constant, all energy companies and utilities are looking for opportunities to preserve profit and enhance efficiency. For organizations managing
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Legal & Regulatory
Trump Names Democrat David Rosner as FERC Chairman
President Trump has appointed David Rosner as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), elevating the Democratic commissioner to lead the independent energy regulator after Republican Mark Christie stepped down from the position. Rosner has served as a FERC commissioner since June 2024 and officially assumed the chairman role on Aug. 13. The appointment […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Nuclear Power: A Critical Pillar for U.S. Economic Growth and National Security
Nuclear power has emerged as a linchpin for U.S. goals for energy and national security. The nuclear sector has a long history of bipartisan support in the federal government.
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Legal & Regulatory
Nuclear Fusion, Climate Change, and IP Rights: Striking the Right Balance
Net power through nuclear fusion may finally be within reach. Fusion technology is moving out of the lab, and many companies, driven by the shared dream of carbon-free energy to combat climate change, are striving to commercialize technologies to make fusion a reality.
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Commentary
Powering the Future Without Paralyzing It
The future of energy is rapidly evolving. The explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) and the enormous energy infrastructure it demands will continue to drive unprecedented electricity needs. Goldman Sachs projects that U.S. power demand could grow by as much as 20% by the decade’s end, in large part due to the construction of data centers. These […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Tariff Tempest: Renewables’ Route Through the Current Tariff Climate
The current state of play for tariffs is creating headwinds and challenges, along with complexity and uncertainty, for global economies and certainly the renewable energy industry. While the renewable energy sector is no stranger to tariffs and the “challenge” they present, knowing the current status of such tariffs is the first step to developing mechanisms for dealing with them in a way that can give your project the best chance at success.
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Cybersecurity
Artificial Intelligence’s Thirst for Power Demands Greater Focus on Cybersecurity of the Energy Sector
Behind the scenes of every new artificial intelligence (AI) app and program is a staggering amount of energy needed to power its data centers. We’re already in the throes of the AI revolution and with
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Legal & Regulatory
FEOC May Expand in Scope and Application for Inflation Reduction Act
The energy industry, and particularly those participating in renewables, battery storage, and electric mobility, and their supply chain (solar panels, wind turbines, battery components, etc.), are facing
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Legal & Regulatory
Security Is Vital for Data Centers in an Innovation-Driven World
Data centers serve as the silent backbone of our daily lives, the epicenter of digital communication, corporate data, and countless innovations including artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and the
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Commentary
Legal, Regulatory Risks Bring Uncertainty for the Energy Sector
Lightning-fast changes continue to happen daily as the Trump administration seeks to implement its energy policies. With stated policies firmly in support of promoting America’s fossil fuel development, curtailing renewable energy, and reducing regulatory burdens, recent and ongoing actions reflect these goals. What remains to be seen are what impacts the broad swath of energy […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Private Equity Weighs Focus as Government Policies Shift
As the new administration begins implementing its energy policy agenda, the market is keenly anticipating the impact on private equity sponsors’ energy transition investments. President Trump has signaled
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Renewables
Solar Trade Group’s Plan: 700 GWh of Energy Storage by 2030
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) published a white paper outlining the industry group’s vision for U.S. energy storage, setting a target to install 10 million distributed energy storage sites and reach 700 kWh of installed storage capacity the end of the decade. The white paper, released Jan. 28 along with a guide to energy […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Growth of Data Centers Likely Faces Economic, Legal Challenges
Is it possible that the digital infrastructure and energy/power industries are overestimating the need for data centers, and for development of new energy facilities to be used to power them? The growth of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) is expected to account for 3.5% of global electricity consumption by 2030, according to Gartner, a consultancy. […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Importance of Rate Design in Moving Customers Toward Electrification
Home heating is approaching an impasse—there is great opportunity to decarbonize through heat pumps for both heating and cooling, but rising electricity rates might discourage consumers from getting on
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Legal & Regulatory
Watt’s Up with Cyber and AI? Navigating Legal Currents in Power Generation and Smart Grids
In the rapidly evolving landscape of power generation, companies are increasingly integrating smart grids and artificial intelligence (AI) into their operations. This transition, while promising enhanced efficiency and reliability, also brings forth a myriad of challenges, particularly in the realms of cybersecurity and legal compliance. This commentary delves into three legal issues around emerging cybersecurity […]
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Commentary
Hotly Contested Dispute Over Co-Located Loads Is Primed for FERC Action
Federal regulation of customer loads located next to existing power generating facilities, referred to as “co-located loads,” have become a significant area of interest for the electric industry. Large industrial loads have taken an interest in this configuration because it promises a faster, streamlined pathway to interconnecting to the grid and meeting their power supply […]
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Research and Development
Digital Transformation: Fueling Solutions for Today’s Energy and Utilities’ Challenges
Energy and utilities companies are grappling with unprecedented challenges. With the cost of electricity surging by 28.5% in just five years, the average American now spends nearly $300 a month on utilities, leading to a rise in customer defaults and mounting bad debt. Global energy demand is only set to grow in the coming years […]
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Legal & Regulatory
How Local Opposition Can Thwart Renewable Energy Projects
Two-thirds of Americans say that they support the development of alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydrogen power. At least that’s what the Pew Research Center found in a nationwide survey
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Renewables
Risk Management, Skilled Counsel Key in Renewable Energy
Renewable energy project developers and contractors must be prepared to negotiate novel risks in a quickly changing global market. Technological innovations in renewable energy equipment and decreasing
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Legal & Regulatory
EU Mandates Biodiversity Restoration, Setting Up New ‘Green’ Requirements Alongside ‘Clean’ Ones for Power Sector
This June, the European Council formally adopted a first-of-its-kind regulation that sets out to restore at least 20% of the European Union’s (EU’s) land and sea areas by 2030 and all ecosystems in need of
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Legal & Regulatory
FERC Adopts Transmission Reform; Commissioner Cries Foul
There has been a growing consensus in recent years that the transmission planning process must be reformed to ensure reliability in the face of a rapidly changing grid. Despite the need for new transmission to
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Legal & Regulatory
How Regulatory Burdens and Misguided Incentives Are Degrading Power System Reliability
It’s no secret that the U.S. electric power system has undergone a remarkable transition that continues today. Coal-fired generation, which was the leading source of power generation during the 20th century, often providing more than half of the country’s electricity supply, fell to about 16.2% of the mix in 2023. Meanwhile, the U.S. solar market […]
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Legal & Regulatory
NRC Advances Rule to Streamline Advanced Nuclear Reviews
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has voted to codify proposed changes to streamline a key environmental review process for advanced nuclear reactors. Nuclear advocates lauded the measure as one of the regulator’s most important actions in 2024. The NRC on April 17 approved its staff’s recommendation to publish a proposed rule that would amend […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Measure Twice, Cut Once—A Roadmap for Enabling VPPs Through Policy and Program Design
Virtual power plants (VPPs), as aggregations of dispatchable distributed energy resources (DERs), can deliver grid services ranging from resource adequacy to reliability at scale—all while making energy more affordable. Yet, despite their merits, the U.S. utility industry is yet to leverage the full potential of these readily available, affordable, customer-sited resources to add flexibility to the grid. Of course, the decision to incorporate […]