COURSE NUMBER: MBA212.1
This 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 a mixture of lectures and case discussions.

REQUIRED READINGS: The course will use a packet of readings and case materials available on bCourses.

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 full time and EW 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 deregulated industries or in commodity markets.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: 
50% exams- in class quizzes and final exam
40% energy strategy games and writing assignments
10% class participation

NO ELECTRONICS POLICY: This course will follow the “no electronics” policy that is used in the MBA core. Use of laptop computers, cellphones, ipads, or other electronic devices during class will not be permitted. If you have a certified medical need to use a laptop in class, please come and talk to me about it.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: 
In the past 40 years, some 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 that had previously been viewed as staid and conservative have been rocked by deregulation initiatives, the California electricity crises, the Enron scandal, rising and collapsing commodity prices, and now the challenge to reduce greenhouse gases at the same time 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 have raised in energy markets. Topics include regulation and deregulation of energy utilities, the development and effect of organized spot and futures markets in energy; climate change, environmental policy and the emerging markets for green energy; market power and antitrust; and the transportation and storage of energy commodities. We examine the economic determinants of industry structure and evolution of competition among firms in these industries; investigate successful and unsuccessful strategies for entering new markets and competing in existing markets; and 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 Director emeritus of the University of California Energy Institute (1994-2014) and the Energy Institute at Haas (2009-2014).   He received his A.B. 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.  In 2010-11, Borenstein was a member of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood's Future of Aviation Advisory Committee.  In 2012-13, he served on the Emissions Market Assessment Committee, which advised the California Air Resources Board on the operation of California’s Cap and Trade market for greenhouse gases.  In 2014, he was appointed to the California Energy Commission’s Petroleum Market Advisory Committee, which he has chaired since 2015.  In 2015, he was also appointed to the Advisory Board of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.