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Academic Journal
Business Law

“Energy Policy: No Place for Zero-Sum Thinking”

Environmental law and environmental protection are often portrayed as requiring trade offs: “jobs versus environment,” “markets versus regulation,” “enforcement versus incentives.” The authors explore the meaning and the role of zero-sum environmentalism as a first step in moving beyond it.
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10328-10351 pages 2017 Inara Scott Shalanda Baker Robin Craig John Dernbach Keith Hirokawa Unknown Sarah Krakoff Jessica Owley Melissa Powers Shannon Roesler Jonathan Rosenbloom JB Ruhl Jim Salzman David Takacs View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
Business Law

“Environmental Law. Disrupted.”

The U.S. regulatory environment is changing rapidly, at the same time that visible and profound impacts of climate change are already being felt throughout the world, and enormous, potentially existential threats loom in the not-so-distant future. What does it mean to think about and practice environmental law in this setting? In this Article, members of the Environmental Law Collaborative have taken on the question of whether environmental law as we currently know it is up to the job of addressing these threats, and, if not, what the path forward should be.
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10038-10063 pages 2019 Environmental Law Institute Inara Scott David Takacs View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
Business Law

“Incentive Regulation, New Business Models, and the Transformation of the Electric Power Industry”

The electric utility sector is in the midst of paradigmatic change. Market forces include decreased load growth and technological advances in distributed energy resources, alongside pressures for decarbonization and demands for increased efficiency and new utility services. Meanwhile, as the utility monopoly is undermined and profits slow, financial analysts signal increasing risk to potential utility investors. Suggestions for changes to the existing regulatory structure abound. At the broadest level, the changes that have been proposed reflect an established divide between energy policy, which traditionally focuses on economics and markets, and environmental law, which is based in the protection of natural resources and ecosystems. This article: 1) identifies regulatory and economic incentives embedded in the current utility system; 2) assesses current market trends and new utility goals; and 3) analyzes the intersection of embedded regulatory incentives and key proposals for regulatory changes in light of the new goals. It finds that proposals for changes to the regulatory structure often fail to account for existing regulatory incentives, and ignore opportunities to use regulatory incentives to modify and incentivize desired utility behavior. It concludes with recommendations for ways to incorporate incentive-based regulation in proposals for new utility regulatory structures.
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319-370 pages 2016 Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law Inara Scott View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
Business Law

“Keeping the Lights On: Examining and Re-Imagining NLRA Preemption in a Time of Electric Necessity”

Strikes or lockouts at an electric utility can lead to delayed maintenance in the best case, or blackouts in the worst. In a society dependent on electricity for everything from health care to safe drinking water, a disruption in utility service could cause untold damage. Yet thanks to the expansive doctrine of preemption under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), many public utility commissions (“PUCs”)—the state entities that regulate electric utilities—have concluded that they are prohibited from intervening in labor disputes, even when public safety is threatened. Given the magnitude of harm that could be caused by electric service disruptions, clarification of PUCs’ authority is necessary. This article analyzes the extent to which state agencies retain the power to regulate utilities and protect their citizens, even when their actions may, either directly or indirectly, impact collective bargaining or alter the balance of power between labor and management. The article illustrates the authority of state utility regulators to set service and safety standards, oversee utility staffing, and intervene in labor disputes. In addition, the article proposes a re-thinking of NLRA preemption doctrine as applied to electric utilities, and suggests possible reforms to accommodate the role electricity plays in today’s society.
Details

415-446 pages 2014 Inara Scott View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
Business Law

“Learning to "Think Like a Lawyer": Developing a Metacognitive Model for Legal Reasoning”

In the area of law, metacognition is an implicit goal of instruction, as legal studies classes often stress learning to “think like a lawyer.” However, the explicit metacognitive model for using legal reasoning to break down complex problems and seek solutions is rarely identified. This article explicitly identifies the metacognitive model for thinking like a lawyer and provides concrete steps for direct instruction in this method of analysis. The method of analysis and the resulting model are useful to beyond the legal studies classroom, as the legal reasoning model is substantially similar to a model for critical thinking.
Details

34-42 pages 2021 Taylor & Francis Ltd. Inara Scott View on: Google Scholar

Book
Business Law

“Off Grid Solar and the Global Compact”

In remote rural areas, off-grid solar lighting may be the first step on a path to education and sustainable growth. However, serving this market can be difficult for established businesses accustomed to working in developed markets. This chapter offers research-based insight into the best practices for operating in subsistence markets, with a particular emphasis on how these practices are implemented by enterprises providing off-grid solar lighting.
Details

2017 Greenleaf Publishing Inara Scott

Academic Journal
Business Law

“Planning for the Future of the Electric Power Sector through Regional Collaboratives”

As it undergoes rapid evolutionary change, the electric power sector has become highly fragmented and complex, with divided responsibilities, lopsided investments, and insufficient coordination to set goals and meet them. The use of regional collaborative governance structures might reimagine the goals and governance of the sector.
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11 pages 2015 The Electricity Journal Inara Scott David Bernell View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
Business Law

“R Corps: When Should Corporate Values Receive Religious Protection”

In this article, we explain how a corporation might invoke religious freedom claims in order to protect corporate values such as diversity, equality, sanctuary, or women’s access to reproductive care which are not exclusively associated with a religion, and are often held by secular entities. In order to do so, we must address the following unresolved legal issues: 1) How can one define whether a set of beliefs are “religious” when those beliefs are held not just by a single individual, but by a diverse collection of individuals? 2) Does the meaning of religion change when it is no longer exercised by a human being but instead by a corporation? 3) Importantly, how would a court evaluate the religious claims of a business entity made up of diverse owners, members, and/or shareholders? And 4) What are the broader consequences, benefits and detriments of protecting such claims?
Details

91-133 pages 2020 Berkeley Business Law Journal Inara Scott Elizabeth Brown Eric Yordy View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
Business Law

“Redefining and Regulating the New Sharing Economy”

While proponents of regulating the sharing economy suggest a need to protect public health, workers, and incumbent businesses, to ensure localities are made whole for the use of public services, opponents of regulation argue that government intervention will stifle innovation and undermine economic and community benefits. The problem with both sides of this argument is that advocates and detractors alike often fail to address the wide differences among the practices and business entities that currently fall under the same umbrella. To address this inappropriate conflation and the resulting confusion among consumers and regulators alike, the goal of this article is to define the sharing economy as it now stands and to create a taxonomy that distinguishes and differentiates the various types of business entities that have been lumped into it. This article then proposes regulatory responses to the differing categories in the taxonomy based on the risks they present.
Details

553-751 pages 2017 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law Inara Scott Elizabeth Brown View on: Google Scholar