Incumbency and the Legal Configuration of Hydrocarbon Infrastructure
Incumbency is usually understood as an entity’s power to preclude economic competition through legislative rent seeking or price manipulation, and monopolistic electrical power utilities are a frequently presented as the prototypical example of such incumbency. However, whether this sort of economic incumbency is an impediment to the transition to a clean energy infrastructure is contingent upon the particular utility. In contrast, in this chapter the author argues that hydrocarbon energy infrastructure is itself entrenched in law. The economic perspective abstracts from the law and therefore fails to recognize that the presently existing legally organized electrical power markets are not a neutral field, but presuppose and support hydrocarbon generation. To transition to clean energy, then, law and regulations must be reconfigured around the features of renewable energy generation and infrastructure.