Watts at Stake: Clean Energy’s Antitrust Problem

Abstract

This paper analyzes the history of antitrust regulations and thought in the US. It assesses the arguments made by the pioneers of antitrust and those who sought to depart from a structuralist interpretation of market intervention. This paper then meta-analyzes the financial holdings of the fifteen most expensive and critical electric transmission projects for the realization of the nation’s clean energy goals. It then argues that more proactive market regulation is necessary to create the best conditions for the build-out of the electric grid. The paper concludes by proposing three possible methods of increasing oversight within the financial structures of the energy grid, available to both Congress and federal agencies.