A Decade of International Energy 2015–2025 II: Commodities, Credit, US–Canada Trade, and Careful Deregulation

Abstract

This is my second in a series of three reviews of a decade of contributions to International Energy, focusing particularly on how I have regularly revisited specific themes related to the economics of regulation, energy markets, international energy disputes, and the pressure of greenhouse gas (GHG) remedies on energy regulators. In the July 2025 edition of Climate and Energy, I revisited five such themes. These themes highlight the fundamental challenge of regulating industry and managing social costs when regulations fall short. They are (1) costly path dependence exhibited by regulators worldwide, (2) the surprising fragility of long-standing US energy regulatory norms, (3) the inherently unworkable federal and state attempts at GHG regulation, (4) the increasing difficulties faced by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in regulating interstate electricity transmission, and (5) the source and remedies (or lack thereof) for the past decade's two most costly energy supply disasters—the 2021 Winter Storm Uri in Texas and Europe's energy issues resulting from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.¹