Foreword

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Citation: Vol. 39 No. 4
• Publication year: 2023
• topic: Environmental Law,Energy & Natural Resources

Foreword

John Travis Marshall

Karen Johnston

FOREWORD

John Travis Marshall & Karen Johnston^*

The United States finds itself at a critical crossroads. The future promises a landscape with a steadily changing climate, an economy navigating fundamental shifts, significant levels of domestic social vulnerability, and international conflicts driven in no small part by the goal of maintaining access to reasonably priced natural gas and oil. Amid these looming challenges, one thing is for certain: the pathway to a more sustainable future for the U.S. must include the robust transformation of the nation's energy sector.

Law and policy have profoundly informed, and will continue to inform, the essential and ongoing transformations around energy resource development, energy generation, transmission of electrical power, and energy conservation. It is, however, unwise to assume that the arc of these transformations bends toward a better future for all. There are no assurances that this energy transition will secure a more resilient, equitable, efficient, and economical future. It is, for this reason, imperative to stop and consider potential future pathways for our state's and our nation's energy transition. In particular, lawyers and policymakers alike should pause to consider the goals or the end to which the nation and Georgia are charting their ways forward.

The Georgia State University Law Review's 2023 Symposium, Renewable Energy: 2023 and Beyond, could not be timelier. Georgia and the rest of the nation are pressed to realize a future that includes low-cost, carbon-free energy resources. These needs are underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrating that millions of Americans, including Georgians, live just a paycheck or two away from not affording to pay their rent or having to choose between buying food and covering their substantial monthly power bills. The first two decades of this century have also featured weather events that might once have seemed plucked from the imaginations of science fiction writers. The last twenty or so years have been punctuated not only with the effects of more extreme tidal events but also with indications that tropical cyclones are developing more rapidly, wildfire seasons are growing in duration and intensity, and arctic-like cold waves are reaching almost every region of the U.S. Hundreds have perished in these weather-related disasters; hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent by the federal government rebuilding affected communities. Unfortunately, domestic challenges aren't the only problems that must concern us. A global market for energy resources also means that Georgia and the U.S. remain deeply vulnerable to war and unrest the world over. Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine caused energy prices to spike, supercharging a post-pandemic period of high inflation that has the economy teetering at the precipice of a recession. Russia's invasion of Ukraine highlights that the need for energy security is greater than ever.¹

At the same time, opportunities for Georgia and the nation to map trajectories toward transformative energy futures—futures that are more equitable and inclusive—have arguably never been better. Recent federal laws passed to respond to the severe economic distress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are making possible historic investments in grid modernization, clean energy, and climate action.² The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act earmarks billions of dollars to "modernize the electricity grid, build a nationwide network of electric vehicle [(EV)] chargers, strengthen the battery supply chain, expand public transit and passenger rail, invest in new clean energy and emissions reduction technologies, improve resilience in physical and natural systems, and clean up legacy pollution in communities across the country."³ In addition, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) provides $370 billion to "lower energy costs for families and small businesses, accelerate private investment in clean energy solutions in every sector of the economy and every corner of the country, strengthen supply chains for everything from critical minerals to efficient electric appliances, and create good-paying jobs and new economic opportunities for workers."⁴

Transition to renewable energy is a complicated endeavor rife with political disagreements, clashes among "green" interests, attenuated permitting processes, vocal grassroots and local government opposition, sourcing and manufacturing issues, and more. It is no easy task to imagine a future state and national energy landscape dynamic enough to address pressing concerns related to a warming climate and an ever-evolving market for electrical power. The one-day Symposium grappled the challenges and opportunities of a more sustainable energy future from three perspectives. Building on the Symposium's opening session, which served as a general primer on core issues relating to renewable energy law and policy in Georgia, the Symposium explored three broad questions, including:

• a keynote address outlining the reasons why communities must double down on their efforts to promote resilience to the extant and expected impacts of climate change;
• a panel expounding the difficulties that the industry and governmental entities are encountering, and will encounter, in moving toward decarbonization; and
• a concluding panel framing the advances and the obstacles industry and government are encountering in the work involved in revitalizing the nation's electrical grid.

This foreword concludes with a brief overview of the Symposium's panels and keynote address, incorporating a brief sketch of each of the four articles from Symposium contributors.

An Introduction to Energy: In many countries, the national government controls the levers of energy law and policy. In the U.S., however, states can exert significant influence on basic decisions related to energy production, electrical transmission, and energy conservation. Georgia is no exception. The Symposium's first panel provided the audience with an overview of the state government entities that help drive Georgia's decisions on energy matters. This session featured three panelists: Costas Simoglou, director, Georgia Center of Innovation for Energy Technology; Tricia Pridemore, chair, Georgia Public Service Commission; and Maggie Kelley Riggins, senior program manager, Southeastern Energy Efficiency Alliance.⁵

The panelists explained how the various state actors play a central role in determining the state's energy future. Their comments help illustrate how public entities, including the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA), and the Georgia Department of Economic Development (DED), could all help calibrate the state's trajectory...