The Medium Is the Message

Abstract

The Medium matters; Details matter. Two important, somewhat overlooked Supreme Court decisions, reconfigured the law on the most important technology in the United States. One decision of the Court was unanimous, and together these decisions determine the future of American power. The two Supreme Court decisions created a simultaneous legal equation with a clear independent variable, a dependent variable, and a constant term now to be solved in the regulation of energy in America.

The independent variable is the new technological ‘medium’ of fast-evolving renewable electric generation options, to mitigate global climate warming and to preserve the Planet.

The U.S. regulatory structure is the dependent variable amid this technology changes.

The ‘constant’ is the unprecedented constitutional ‘bright line’ etched in American law.

This article develops all the constants and variables in this energy equation. Within the unique American separation of constitutional jurisdiction, the Supreme Court’s two Hughes and EPSA holdings re-etched the law’s ‘bright line’ of power. This article analyzes the new electric power equation through time, and charts the future impact of these two critical Supreme Court decisions on the future of American power and environment.