Faculty
Inara Scott
Senior Associate Dean
Law

Inara Scott

541-737-4102

inara.scott@bus.oregonstate.edu

Faculty
Inara Scott
Overview
Overview
Background
Publications

Overview

Biography

Nationally recognized for her work in AI-responsive pedagogy, Inara is an innovative academic leader dedicated to building student success and increasing impact across higher education. As Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning at 's College of Business, Inara works to build responsive, relevant, and engaged classrooms committed to active and inclusive pedagogies. In her academic research, she investigates the intersection of sustainability and capitalism, particularly through an interrogation of the role of law in shaping capitalism and democratic structures.

Career Interests

Inara Scott practiced law for over a decade before joining the faculty at . Inara’s research at State centers on sustainable business, clean energy, and legal and policy implications of capitalism and climate change. In her administrative roles for the College of Business, she has served as the Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning Excellence, the College Hearing Officer, and is currently serving as Senior Associate Dean. She studies and writes on pedagogy in higher education and inclusive teaching, and has been nationally recognized for her work in the area of AI-responsive pedagogy. 

 

 

Background

Education

JD, Lewis and Clark Law School (2000), Summa Cum Laude, Notes and Comments Editor, Environmental Law

MS, Recreation and Leisure Studies, State University of New York at Cortland (1998)

BA, History and Women's Studies, Duke University (1994), Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa

Experience

Manager, Rates and Regulatory Affairs, NW Natural (2007-2010) Represented utility in complex negotiations and proceedings before the and Washington Public Utility Commissions, including resource acquisition and integrated resource planning.

Assistant General Counsel, Portland General Electric (2005-2007) Represented utility in proceedings before Public Utility Commission and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, complex rulemaking proceedings implementing utility tax measures, and negotiating transactional agreements for gas pipelines.

Associate, Ater Wynne LLP (2001-2005) Practiced commercial, business, and energy law. Advised people’s utility districts, investor-owned utilities, and cooperatives on regulatory compliance, including FERC hydropower licensing and compliance, and contracts with the Bonneville Power Administration.

Additional Information

Looking for a good book? If you're interested in energy policy, business and sustainability or social change, you can find Inara's recommendations, and what's on her bedside table, on Goodreads:

Publications

Academic Journal
Business Law

“A business model for success: Enterprises serving the base of the pyramid with off-grid solar lighting”

Basic electric service is essential to sustainable development, yet for remote rural areas, connecting to an electric grid can be economically and geographically unfeasible. Firms have sought to bring basic electric service to isolated and impoverished rural areas using off-grid solar lights and solar home systems, but often meet challenges common to base of the pyramid (BOP) markets. This article examines the intersection of theories related to successful business models for enterprises serving the base of the pyramid and studies of off-grid renewable energy enterprises. It identifies relevant and overlapping themes, and creates a framework for a successful business model that includes four primary components: community interaction; partnerships; local capacity building; and addressing barriers unique to the off-grid market, including financing, education, and development of distribution networks.
Details

50-55 pages 2016 Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews Inara Scott View on:

Academic Journal
Business Law

“Incentive Regulation, New Business Models, and the Transformation of the Electric Power Industry”

The electric utility sector is in the midst of paradigmatic change. Market forces include decreased load growth and technological advances in distributed energy resources, alongside pressures for decarbonization and demands for increased efficiency and new utility services. Meanwhile, as the utility monopoly is undermined and profits slow, financial analysts signal increasing risk to potential utility investors. Suggestions for changes to the existing regulatory structure abound. At the broadest level, the changes that have been proposed reflect an established divide between energy policy, which traditionally focuses on economics and markets, and environmental law, which is based in the protection of natural resources and ecosystems. This article: 1) identifies regulatory and economic incentives embedded in the current utility system; 2) assesses current market trends and new utility goals; and 3) analyzes the intersection of embedded regulatory incentives and key proposals for regulatory changes in light of the new goals. It finds that proposals for changes to the regulatory structure often fail to account for existing regulatory incentives, and ignore opportunities to use regulatory incentives to modify and incentivize desired utility behavior. It concludes with recommendations for ways to incorporate incentive-based regulation in proposals for new utility regulatory structures.
Details

319-370 pages 2016 Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law Inara Scott View on:

Academic Journal
Business Law

“Antitrust and Socially Responsible Collaboration: A Chilling Combination?”

Businesses are increasingly using collaboration to address concerns about sustainability, transparency, human rights, and labor conditions in global markets. Such collaborations include the development of certifications and standards, the sharing of information about factories and suppliers, and agreements to share facilities, like less than full delivery trucks. Yet at the same time, federal antitrust policies broadly prohibit agreements that restrain trade or commerce, creating the potential for innovative collaborations to result in legal prosecution. This article applies antitrust law to socially responsible and sustainable business collaboration in an effort to determine whether antitrust law chills potentially beneficial agreements. The article concludes that careful structuring of agreements can avoid many antitrust violations, but also finds that certain types of agreements, including those that could have the most impact on scarce resources and vulnerable commodity producers, are forbidden. Accordingly, this article argues that per se rules forbidding certain practices, including price fixing and resource sharing, be reconsidered in light of current economic and environmental conditions. It also questions certain assumptions about the benefits of competition in light of current environmental, human rights, and sustainability challenges.
Details

97-144 pages 2016 ALSB Inara Scott View on:

Academic Journal
Business Law

“A Response to the IPCC Fifth Assessment”

In this article, the authors respond to various sections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment.
Details

1002710048 pages 2015 Sarah Adams-Schoen Deepa Badrinarayana Cinnamon Carlarne Robin Craig John Dernbach Keith Hirokawa Alexandra Klass Katrina Kuh Stephen Miller Jessica Owley Shannon Roesler Jonathan Rosenbloom Inara Scott David Takacs View on:

Academic Journal
Business Law

“Applying Stakeholder Theory to Utility Regulation”

Many in the energy sector are calling for a transformation of the traditional utility model. However, proposals for “Utility 2.0” typically maintain the bilateral, adversarial relationship between the utility and its regulator. This article posits that one of the key flaws in the U.S. utility regulatory system is this myopic decision-making process, which limits the potential for consideration of stakeholder interests and more comprehensive systems thinking. While expanding the interests considered by utilities and regulators will not solve other problems embedded in traditional utility regulation, a broadening of the consideration of stakeholder interests will almost certainly allow for more comprehensive long-term planning, greater attention to environmental and other stakeholder concerns, and the potential for transformational policy choices. The article therefore offers a new governance structure that would bring stakeholder interests to the regulatory table and allow utilities and regulators to include these interests in key decision-making contexts.
Details

2015 Ecology Law Currents Inara Scott View on:

Academic Journal
Business Law

“Planning for the Future of the Electric Power Sector through Regional Collaboratives”

As it undergoes rapid evolutionary change, the electric power sector has become highly fragmented and complex, with divided responsibilities, lopsided investments, and insufficient coordination to set goals and meet them. The use of regional collaborative governance structures might reimagine the goals and governance of the sector.
Details

11 pages 2015 The Electricity Journal Inara Scott David Bernell View on:

Academic Journal
Business Law

“Keeping the Lights On: Examining and Re-Imagining NLRA Preemption in a Time of Electric Necessity”

Strikes or lockouts at an electric utility can lead to delayed maintenance in the best case, or blackouts in the worst. In a society dependent on electricity for everything from health care to safe drinking water, a disruption in utility service could cause untold damage. Yet thanks to the expansive doctrine of preemption under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), many public utility commissions (“PUCs”)—the state entities that regulate electric utilities—have concluded that they are prohibited from intervening in labor disputes, even when public safety is threatened. Given the magnitude of harm that could be caused by electric service disruptions, clarification of PUCs’ authority is necessary. This article analyzes the extent to which state agencies retain the power to regulate utilities and protect their citizens, even when their actions may, either directly or indirectly, impact collective bargaining or alter the balance of power between labor and management. The article illustrates the authority of state utility regulators to set service and safety standards, oversee utility staffing, and intervene in labor disputes. In addition, the article proposes a re-thinking of NLRA preemption doctrine as applied to electric utilities, and suggests possible reforms to accommodate the role electricity plays in today’s society.
Details

415-446 pages 2014 Inara Scott View on:

Academic Journal
Business Law

“Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks: Adapting Public Utility Commissions to Meet Twenty-First Century Climate Challenges”

Climate change and efforts to address it have put the electric utility system under increasing pressure to adapt and evolve. Key to the success of these efforts will be the support of public utility commissions, the state agencies that oversee retail electric utilities. In an effort to determine how these commissions will make decisions, this article explores the history, enabling legislation, and jurisdiction of commissions. It concludes that the authority and purpose of commissions has been narrowly defined to focus almost exclusively on short-term rate impacts to current utility customers, and as a result, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, modernize or transform the electric grid, or expand the path for new technologies such as electric vehicles, will not come from commissions, and in fact may be blocked by the same. Accordingly, the article offers options for modernization, ultimately recommending a melding of economic and environmental goals through a long-term planning process that balances cost and risk, yet remains squarely within the jurisdiction and historical purpose of the regulatory commission.
Details

2014 Harvard Environmental Law Review Inara Scott View on:

Academic Journal
Business Law

“"Dancing Backward in High Heels": Examining and Addressing the Disparate Treatment of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Resources”

Both energy efficiency and renewable resources offer significant benefits to utilities, their customers, and society as a whole. Yet energy efficiency programs face formidable barriers to adoption that renewable resources do not. While both renewable and efficiency resources have received significant funding in recent years, government support for renewables continues to dwarf that for efficiency measures, and regulatory policies consistently discourage utilities from investing in efficiency measures even while they incentivize investment in renewables. This Article examines the parallel development of renewable resource and energy efficiency programs within utilities, compares the differing treatment of each, and offers concrete recommendations for enhancing energy efficiency adoption by modifying existing policies to more closely resemble those applied to renewable resources. The Article concludes that the historic disincentives to implementing efficiency policies can be remedied by: 1) updating ratemaking structures to ensure utilities can recover and earn on efficiency investments; 2) streamlining cost effectiveness tests that presently encourage utilities to underestimate and under-invest in efficiency programs; and 3) addressing market barriers by strengthening consumer incentives and market transformation efforts.
Details

2013 Environmental Law Inara Scott View on:

Conference
Business Law

“Creating a Twenty-First Century Public Utility Commission”

Climate change and efforts to address it have put the electric utility system is under increasing pressure. New policy activities include efforts to increase the penetration of renewable resources, update aging transmission and distribution system infrastructure and transition to a more distributed generation model. Key to the success of these initiatives will be the support of public utility commissions—the state agencies that oversee retail electric utilities. In an effort to determine how these commissions will make decisions, this article explores the history, enabling legislation, and jurisdiction of commissions. It concludes that the authority and purpose of commissions has been narrowly interpreted to focus almost exclusively on short-term rate impacts to utility customers. As a result, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, modernize or transform the grid, or expand the path for new technologies such as electric vehicles, will not come from commissions, and in fact may be blocked by the same. Accordingly, the article offers options for modernization, ultimately recommending a melding of economic and environmental goals through a long-term planning process that balances cost and risk, yet remains squarely within the jurisdiction and historical purpose of the regulatory commission.
Details

2013 2013 Western Academy of Legal Studies in Business Conference Proceedings Inara Scott