Energy and Federalism

Today the United States is the world's second highest consumer of energy. In 2010, the United States used up 2.17 billion tons of oil-equivalent. Oil-equivalent is all sources of energy consumed, including crude oil, natural gases and renewable energy sources like wind, solar and thermal. With such massive amounts of consumption, the government created the FERC. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is an agency created to regulate the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas and oil. The Federal Government in the past 5 years have created more and more laws to help regulate and control the amount of energy our country uses. For example the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requires the lowering of all energy consumption in buildings by 3% annually or 30% by 2015 along with other energy requirements.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

New Federal Regulations and Laws as of 2007