Dynamic Energy Federalism

U.S. energy law and the scholarship analyzing it are deeply fragmented. Each source of energy has a distinct legal regime, and limited federal regulation in some areas has resulted in divergent state and local approaches to regulation. Much of the existing energy law literature reflects these substantive and structural divisions, and focuses on particular aspects of the energy system and associated federalism disputes. However, in order to meet modern energy challenges — such as reducing risks from deepwater drilling and hydraulic fracturing, maintaining the reliability of the electricity grid in this period of rapid technological change, and producing cleaner energy — we need a more dynamic, holistic understanding of energy law. Examining the energy system as a whole reveals patterns across substantive areas and allows them to learn from one another. This Article provides the first systematic account of energy federalism, proposing a novel model for understanding the energy system and its federalism dynamics. It begins by describing the U.S. energy system as comprised of interacting physical, market, and regulatory dimensions. The Article next explains why this complex system requires a federalism model that moves beyond disputes over federal versus state authority; it describes the many vertical interactions (those across levels of government, from the local to the international) and horizontal interactions (those among actors within the same level of government) within different types of energy regulation. The Article then considers the governance challenges created by these interactions, with a focus on inadequate regulatory authority, simultaneous overlap and fragmentation of regulation and institutions, and the difficulties of including key public and private stakeholders while avoiding inappropriate regulatory capture, such as when powerful utilities or oil companies gain control of regulatory processes to protect their private interests at the expense of the public. The Article concludes by proposing dynamic federalism principles for designing institutions that are responsive to these governance challenges through (1) creating needed authority; (2) reducing fragmentation; and (3) allowing for high levels of involvement from key public and private stakeholders that allow for meaningful input without capture. It also introduces our companion article, Hybrid Energy Governance, which applies these principles through detailed case studies to assess institutional innovation in areas critical to energy transformation

Hybrid Energy Governance

This Article develops a novel theory of energy governance and uses it to assess how institutional innovation can help meet critical challenges. Energy law is substantively complex and deeply fragmented. Each energy sector - including fuel extraction and pipelines, electricity generation and transmission, and transportation - has its own legal regime and federalism approach; confusion often exists at moments of crisis about how much authority federal, state, and local regulators have in these areas. The complexity and fragmentation of energy law are particularly problematic because the energy system faces major transitions due to emerging technology, more unpredictable and extreme weather events, and public pressure for \u27cleaner\u27 energy. Regulators struggle to: manage the risks of hydraulic fracturing and deepwater drilling, upgrade our aging electricity grid, and integrate renewable energy sources onto that grid and into electricity markets. Building from our prior work arguing for a dynamic, comprehensive approach to federalism in energy law, this Article proposes a governance model to address modern energy challenges. The Article focuses on the potential of institutions that are \u27hybrid\u27 by virtue of including public and private actors from several governance levels, and enabling important interactions among them. Grounding its approach in interdisciplinary governance theory, it argues that these institutions have characteristics that could address structural barriers - such as inadequate, divided regulatory authority, and the complexities of including key private actors in energy decision making - to substantive progress. After introducing its new conceptual model, the Article examines several hybrid institutions with substantial regional components that are working to address the three core substantive energy challenges identified here. It analyzes their progress in meeting these challenges, and how their hybrid governance approach is assisting them in doing so

Upper Critical Field in a Spin-Charge Separated Superconductor

It is demonstrated that the spatial decay of the pair propagator in a Luttinger liquid with spin charge separation contains a logarithmic correction relative to the free fermi gas result in a finite interval between the spin and charge thermal lengths. It is argued that similar effects can be expected in higher dimensional systems with spin charge separation and that the temperature dependence of the upper critical field $H_{c2}$ curve is a probe of this effect.Comment: 3 pages, postscript file (compressed and uuencoded

Parameter-free expression for superconducting Tc in cuprates

A parameter-free expression for the superconducting critical temperature of layered cuprates is derived which allows us to express Tc in terms of experimentally measured parameters. It yields Tc values observed in about 30 lanthanum, yttrium and mercury-based samples for different levels of doping. This remarkable agreement with the experiment as well as the unusual critical behaviour and the normal-state gap indicate that many cuprates are close to the Bose-Einstein condensation regime.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Will be published in Physical Review

Evaluating the potential for the environmentally sustainable control of foot and mouth disease in Sub-Saharan Africa

Strategies to control transboundary diseases have in the past generated unintended negative consequences for both the environment and local human populations. Integrating perspectives from across disciplines, including livestock, veterinary and conservation sectors, is necessary for identifying disease control strategies that optimise environmental goods and services at the wildlife-livestock interface. Prompted by the recent development of a global strategy for the control and elimination of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), this paper seeks insight into the consequences of, and rational options for potential FMD control measures in relation to environmental, conservation and human poverty considerations in Africa. We suggest a more environmentally nuanced process of FMD control that safe-guards the integrity of wild populations and the ecosystem dynamics on which human livelihoods depend while simultaneously improving socio-economic conditions of rural people. In particular, we outline five major issues that need to be considered: 1) improved understanding of the different FMD viral strains and how they circulate between domestic and wildlife populations; 2) an appreciation for the economic value of wildlife for many African countries whose presence might preclude the country from ever achieving an FMD-free status; 3) exploring ways in which livestock production can be improved without compromising wildlife such as implementing commodity-based trading schemes; 4) introducing a participatory approach involving local farmers and the national veterinary services in the control of FMD; and 5) finally the possibility that transfrontier conservation might offer new hope of integrating decision-making at the wildlife-livestock interface

Design and operation of a cryogenic charge-integrating preamplifier for the MuSun experiment

The central detector in the MuSun experiment is a pad-plane time projection ionization chamber that operates without gas amplification in deuterium at 31 K; it is used to measure the rate of the muon capture process $\mu^- + d \rightarrow n + n + \nu_\mu$. A new charge-sensitive preamplifier, operated at 140 K, has been developed for this detector. It achieved a resolution of 4.5 keV(D$_2$) or 120 $e^-$ RMS with zero detector capacitance at 1.1 $\mu$s integration time in laboratory tests. In the experimental environment, the electronic resolution is 10 keV(D$_2$) or 250 $e^-$ RMS at a 0.5 $\mu$s integration time. The excellent energy resolution of this amplifier has enabled discrimination between signals from muon-catalyzed fusion and muon capture on chemical impurities, which will precisely determine systematic corrections due to these processes. It is also expected to improve the muon tracking and determination of the stopping location.Comment: 18 pages + title page, 13 figures, to be submitted to JINST; minor corrections, added one reference, updated author lis

Poor screening and nonadiabatic superconductivity in correlated systems

In this paper we investigate the role of the electronic correlation on the hole doping dependence of electron-phonon and superconducting properties of cuprates. We introduce a simple analytical expression for the one-particle Green's function in the presence of electronic correlation and we evaluate the reduction of the screening properties as the electronic correlation increases by approaching half-filling. The poor screening properties play an important role within the context of the nonadiabatic theory of superconductivity. We show that a consistent inclusion of the reduced screening properties in the nonadiabatic theory can account in a natural way for the $T_c$-$\delta$ phase diagram of cuprates. Experimental evidences are also discussed.Comment: 12 Pages, 6 Figures, Accepted on Physical Review

Extended bound states and resonances of two fermions on a periodic lattice

The high-$T_c$ cuprates are possible candidates for d-wave superconductivity, with the Cooper pair wave function belonging to a non-trivial irreducible representation of the lattice point group. We argue that this d-wave symmetry is related to a special form of the fermionic kinetic energy and does not require any novel pairing mechanism. In this context, we present a detailed study of the bound states and resonances formed by two lattice fermions interacting via a non-retarded potential that is attractive for nearest neighbors but repulsive for other relative positions. In the case of strong binding, a pair formed by fermions on adjacent lattice sites can have a small effective mass, thereby implying a high condensation temperature. For a weakly bound state, a pair with non-trivial symmetry tends to be smaller in size than an s-wave pair. These and other findings are discussed in connection with the properties of high-$T_c$ cuprate superconductors.Comment: 21 pages, RevTeX, 4 Postscript figures, arithmetic errors corrected. An abbreviated version (no appendix) appeared in PRB on March 1, 199