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.