What Europe's Renewable Energy Struggles Can Teach U.S. Regulators About Dispute System Design

As U.S. regulators confront the intersection of energy transition, emerging technology governance and large-scale infrastructure modernization, a cautionary example is emerging from Europe. The European Union's (EU) most ambitious renewable energy reform illustrates a lesson that should resonate strongly in the United States: When regulatory disputes grow more complex, procedural acceleration alone is not enough. What is required is intentional dispute system design.

Europe's Experience—and Why It Matters to U.S. Readers

In October 2023, the EU adopted the Revised Renewable Energy Directive (commonly known as RED III). For U.S. readers, a brief explanation is helpful. An EU directive is not self-executing federal law; instead, it establishes binding goals that each EU country must implement through its own national legislation, similar in effect—though not in structure—to federal mandates that require state-level implementation.