The Yale Law Journal

Energy & Natural Resources Law

Article

The Water District and the State

Dave Owen

In much of the American West, local special districts with undemocratic governance structures and archaic boundaries dominate water governance. In some places, they are expanding their reach into new policy realms. This Article explains how these governance systems evolved, why they are problematic,…

Feature

Public Utility’s Potential

Alison Gocke

State-level public utility commissions regulate our energy systems. But they are often viewed as ill-equipped to address climate change. This Feature counters that conventional wisdom by uncovering a forgotten history of New York’s energy transition, revealing that public utility’s potential to faci…

Forum

The New Oil and Gas Governance

Tara K. Righetti, Hannah Jacobs Wiseman & James W. Coleman

Even as the United States has become the world’s leading producer of oil and gas, U.S. oil and gas governance has changed drastically. States have amended statutes, applied existing laws, and modified common law doctrine to move beyond a once-unilateral focus on maximizing production and address env…

Article

The Statutory Separation of Powers

Sharon B. Jacobs

Separation of powers operates as an underappreciated structural principle in subconstitutional domains. Using the relationship between federal energy agencies as its primary case study, this Article argues that Congress creates statutory schemes of separation, checks, and balances in its delegations…