Court says the social cost of carbon is real

The research community has warned for decades about the potential environmental and health costs of burning coal, oil, and natural gas, often pointing out that those costs can be measured in real dollars. But now the U.S. court system, as it begins to validate the science informing the social cost of carbon, seems to be listening.

Miriam Seifter on recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on energy

It’s been a monumental year for energy law at the U.S. Supreme Court. With two recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) decisions, the Court has told us more about important jurisdictional questions than it has in over a decade.

Power Points’ Gary Radloff sat down with Miriam Seifter, assistant professor in the University of Wisconsin Law School, to talk about these big decisions, and what we can expect to see as a result.

Changing energy markets and the uncertain future of nuclear power

With hindsight, it’s easy to see how the closing of Wisconsin’s Kewaunee Nuclear Plant in 2013 was a harbinger of things to come. Cheap natural gas and wind power sold to wholesale markets have transformed the economics of electricity generation, and have contributed to the closures of 14 more U.S. nuclear reactors.

Vision, systems thinking, and leadership in energy policy

As the election year marches on, policy experts have turned toward discussions about strategies that could potentially lead to vision, systems thinking, and leadership in energy systems.