As a preliminary matter, on behalf of our entire IRIS organization, I want to welcome Brad Fewell as Chair of our Section for the current fiscal year. Brad has been a long-standing member of our Section and Chair of our Nuclear Energy Committee, among his many contributions. His intimate knowledge of the energy industry and deep regulatory experience will enable him to lead our Section to new heights as our country embarks on what promises to be an historic upgrade of our national infrastructure.
November 10, 2021 Columns
Editor’s Column
By William R. Drexel
Taking a cue from contemporary hot topics, this issue of Infrastructure focuses on regulatory climate change, that is to say, the changes in regulatory policies that result from the leadership pendulum swinging from Democrat to Republican and back to Democrat again. This issue contains two articles that highlight different aspects of such regulatory climate change in the electric and telecommunications sectors of our economy.
In the first article, The ACE Rule and the Chevron Doctrine, Rob Brubaker and Eric Gallon analyze the D.C. Circuit Court’s split decision to invalidate the Trump Administration’s replacement of the Obama Clean Power Plan with the Affordable Clean Energy Rule. In the course of doing so, the authors provide us with a tutorial on the status of Chevron deference, which initially appeared destined for Supreme Court clarification, if not repeal, in this litigation. Due to the D.C. Circuit invalidation of the ACE Rule and the fact that the objectives of the Clean Power Plan have already been met, that Plan appears moot. In addition to assessing the impact of Chevron deference on regulatory climate change, the authors analyze the key legislative language that has fomented the pendulum swings in electric generation regulatory policy.
In our second article, Bold, Not Burdensome, Regulations Can Stimulate Investment in Broadband Infrastructure to Close the Digital Divide, Joe Tocco explains how a light regulatory touch has fostered telecommunications infrastructure investment that helped us weather the pandemic storm. A light regulatory touch has not always been the focus of telecommunications regulatory policy. This publication has well documented the impact that regulatory climate change in the telecommunications arena has produced on net neutrality policies at opposite ends of the spectrum of regulatory intrusion. Yet both have been upheld under the rubric of Chevron deference.
We hope you enjoy this issue as well as our associated podcasts. If you have suggested topics for future issues or podcasts or would like to submit an article for consideration, please contact me at [email protected].