COURSE NUMBER: MBA212.11
The course is dual-listed with the
Evening-Weekend MBA Program
COURSE TITLE: Energy and Environmental Markets
UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 units
INSTRUCTOR: Severin Borenstein
E-MAIL ADDRESS: severinborenstein@berkeley.edu
PREREQUISITE(S): Microeconomics (MBA201A) or its
equivalent.
CLASS FORMAT: Classes will be case discussions,
application exercises, and occasional lectures. The course will meet
on only four days, so attendance on all of these days is mandatory.
September 15: 9:30am-2:15pm
October 6: 9:30am-2:15pm
October 27: 9:30am-2:15pm
November 17: 9:30am-4:30pm
REQUIRED READINGS: The course will use a packet of
readings and case materials available on bCourses. The
course also makes extensive use of screencast videos that I have recorded.
CAREER FIELD: The course is most relevant for
students planning to work in a for-profit company, non-profit, or government
agency in the energy industry. Besides MBA students, the course also draws
graduate students from public policy, engineering, the Energy & Resources
Group, and other departments, bringing viewpoints from many different
perspectives. The course is also relevant for students planning to work in
other regulated and/or network industries, or in commodity markets.
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:
40% in class quizzes (on 9/15, 10/6, and 10/27)
40% final exam (on 11/17)
20% class participation
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND
OBJECTIVES: In
the past 40 years, many of the largest industries in the developed world have
transitioned from regulated to market-based paradigms. Managers in many transportation, information technology, and energy companies
have had to devise strategies to cope with changes in economic and
environmental regulations, and the evolution of new markets and trading
platforms. The energy industries feature a complex mix of regulation and
market-driven incentives, which vary across countries and across states in the
U.S.
In the last two decades, energy
markets have been rocked by deregulation initiatives, the California
electricity crisis, the Enron collapse, volatile commodity prices, and now the
imperative to reduce greenhouse gases at the same time that the fracking revolution
in reducing the cost of hydrocarbon extraction.
Drawing on the tools of economics
and finance, we study the business and public policy issues that these changes
raise in energy markets. Topics include alternative regulatory structures for
energy utilities; the development and effect of organized spot and futures
markets in energy; climate change, environmental policy; the emerging markets
for green energy and emissions reductions; market power and antitrust; and the
transportation and storage of energy commodities. We investigate firm
strategies for entering new markets, competing in existing markets, and
responding to regulation; and we analyze the rationale for and effects of
public policies in energy and environmental markets.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Severin Borenstein is
E.T. Grether Professor of Business
Administration and Public Policy at the Haas School of Business and a Research
Associate of the Energy Institute at Haas. He is also faculty director of
the Energy Institute at Haas and Director emeritus of the University of
California Energy Institute (1994-2014). He received his B.A. from
U.C. Berkeley and Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T. His research focuses on
business competition, strategy, and regulation. He has published
extensively on the airline industry, the oil and gasoline industries, and
electricity markets. His current research projects include the economics
of renewable energy, economic policies for reducing greenhouse gases, and
alternative models of retail electricity pricing. Borenstein is also a research associate of the
National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA. He served on the Board
of Governors of the California Power Exchange from 1997 to 2003. During
1999-2000, he was a member of the California Attorney General's Gasoline Price
Task Force. He currently serves on the Advisory Council to the Bay
Area Air Quality Management District and is a member of the Board of Governors
of the California Independent System Operator.