Please RSVP by Fri May 9, 2025
We invite you to join the Law and Sustainability Initiative at ASU Law as we recognize and hear from the winner of this year's Morrison Prize Contest—an annual contest that awards a $10,000 cash prize to the author(s) of the most influential sustainability-related law review article published in the previous year. This year's winner is Alison Gocke, who will present her article, "Public Utility’s Potential", published in the Yale Law Journal.
Professor Gocke’s article argues that state public utility commissions have significant potential to lead the clean-energy transition and tackle climate change. She challenges the traditional divide between energy and environmental law, suggesting that environmental policy goals can be effectively pursued through energy regulation. Her article draws on New York City’s 1940s and 1950s transition from coal to natural gas, led by the city's Public Service Commission, to illustrate how public utility commissions can play a transformative role in environmental policy. She ultimately contends that modern commissions’ reluctance to engage in the clean-energy transition is driven by structural and political factors, not legal limitations.
A Q&A will follow Professor Gocke's presentation of her article.