Upcoming Changes in Federal Environmental Regulation And How They Will Affect the Development of Energy Infrastructure in the United States

摘要

Of the potential risks inherent in the development of new power generation capacity, the possibility of new and changing environmental policies ranks high on the list. The costs of new programs to regulate carbon emissions or require the development of renewable energy, for instance, are potentially high. Because of their cost, their enactment would certainly be controversial. Moreover, because the enactment of such policies is the subject to the will of Congress and the President, which are influenced by the political climate at any given moment, it is difficult to predict the likelihood that any particular program will be enacted. Given the long-lived nature of power generation assets, this legislative and regulatory uncertainty tends to deter capital investment. Environmental risks to power generators arise from the possibility of new laws passed by Congress or state legislatures and new regulations issued by federal or state regulators pursuant to existing authority. This paper briefly surveys those policies that are most likely to affect power generators.