Collaborative Research: Regulating Electricity Markets: Impacts on Energy Transitions and Environmental Justice

虽然发电对现代经济和现代生活至关重要，但它也会产生严重的污染，这些污染主要落在少数族裔和低收入群体身上。世界正处于向清洁能源发电的两大转型中：第一，从煤炭转向天然气，从天然气转向可再生能源。这些转变是在高度监管的环境中发生的，这引发了监管如何影响能源转变和污染分配(环境正义)的问题。该项目研究回报率监管对以前能源转型的影响，并评估这种监管结构的变化可能如何影响正在进行的转型。此外，该项目评估环境监管机构如何将环境正义纳入其《清洁空气法修正案》的执行决定中，以及替代执行决定如何影响社区福祉。该项目的结果将为电力监管政策提供投入，以加快向清洁能源的过渡，并改善环境正义。为了评估回报率监管在能源转型中的作用，该项目开发并从结构上估计了一个模型，其中公用事业公司长期投资和淘汰发电能力，并在短期内做出使用决策。在这种模式中，监管机构试图激励公用事业公司在满足电力需求的同时将成本降至最低，方法是为被认为“使用过的和有用的”发电机提供公平的回报率。此外，该项目还估计了环境正义如何影响到监管机构对执法的偏好。该模式允许监管机构将社区和发电商的福利纳入执法决定。该项目为评估监管发电商选择的新办法以及这些选择对当地社区的影响提供了一个框架。该项目的结果将为电力监管政策提供投入，以加快向清洁能源的过渡，并改善环境正义。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

While electricity generation is critical to modern economic and modern life, it also generates substantial pollution, which falls disproportionately on minority and lower income groups. The world is in the middle of two major transitions to cleaner sources of electricity generation: first from coal to natural gas and from natural gas to renewable energy. These transitions are occurring in a highly regulated environment, raising the question of how regulation affects energy transitions and for the distribution of pollution (environmental justice). This project studies the effect of rate-of-return regulation on previous energy transitions and evaluates how changes in this regulatory structure may influence ongoing transitions. In addition, this project evaluates how environmental regulatory agencies incorporate environmental justice into their Clean Air Act Amendment enforcement decisions, and how alternative enforcement decisions impact community well-being. The results of this project will provide inputs into electricity regulation policies in order to hasten the transition to clean energy as well as improve environmental justice.To evaluate the role of rate-of-return regulation in energy transitions, this project develops and structurally estimates a model where utilities invest in and retire generation capacity in the long run and make usage decisions in the short run. In this model, the regulator attempts to incentivize utilities to minimize costs while meeting electricity needs by offering a fair rate-of-return on generators that are deemed “used and useful.” Further, this project estimates how environmental justice enters regulators' preferences over enforcement. The model allows regulators to incorporate both communities’ and electricity generators’ welfare in enforcement decisions. This project provides a framework for evaluating new approaches to regulating electricity generators’ choices and the impact of these choices on local communities. The results of this project will provide inputs into electricity regulation policies in order to hasten the transition to clean energy as well as improve environmental justice.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.