Authority to regulate the U.S. electricity system is split between the Federal government and the States. Traditionally, States have exclusive jurisdiction over retail sales, generation siting, and fuel choices (i.e., whether to authorize regulated utilities to burn coal or harness the wind). Federal regulators, meanwhile, have authority over interstate transmission and wholesale sales in interstate commerce.

Over the past three decades, many States have required or encouraged utilities to increasingly rely on interstate markets for procuring energy, and Congress and Federal regulators have enabled this transition. This shift to markets has opened a new front in the long-standing tension between State and Federal authority. A host of legal challenges filed since 2010 argue that in this new regulatory environment State power to require or encourage clean energy is limited by Federal authority over interstate markets.

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Project Overview
StatePowerProject.org focuses on challenges to state clean energy policies in federal courts. Most lawsuits argue that state policies are barred  by the dormant Commerce Clause or preempted by the Supremacy Clause. With few exceptions, states are successfully defending their clean energy policies against these attacks. The site also tracks challenges to state transmission laws in federal court, documents the Trump Administration’s lawsuits about state energy policies, and follows litigation about Department of Energy orders that prevent uneconomic power plants from retiring.

The site provides summaries of litigation and archives filed legal briefs and judicial or administrative decisions in those cases. The site also presents background about key concepts at issue, including relevant Constitutional provisions and electricity policies. The site’s policy resources section applies constitutional doctrines to state energy policies and suggests how states can work within constitutional constraints to achieve policy goals.

StatePowerProject.org is created and maintained by the Harvard Electricity Law Initiative.