Legal Support of Rational Use of Energy Resources

The applicable laws place the highest value on the rational use of energy resources in the sphere of energy saving and energy efficiency in the Russian economic development. However, there remains legal uncertainty in terms of direct levers of the promising and rational use of energy resources. The legislator maintains “qualified silence” in this matter, the judicial practice is contradictory and ambiguous in the issues of acknowledgment of irrational behavior of energy market participants, there is no standard of proof. Along with these stagnation processes in legal support of the rational use of energy resources, the legislator piles up new constituent elements of administrative offenses and criminally punishable acts in the energy security sphere. Such instruments fail to deliver the desired results in form of the establishment of the rational use of non-renewable energy resources. Renewable energy resources in the context of legal support of the rational use are out of the question as there is no respective framework law. That’s why the author concludes that it is needed to establish a legal model of the rational and safe use of energy resources (legal compliance).

Keywords

energy law, rational use, energy saving, renewable power generation, non-renewable energy resources, legal uncertainty, energy security

Received

21.03.2023

Publication date

27.06.2023

Number of characters

24137

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GOST	Loginovsky D. Legal Support of Rational Use of Energy Resources // Energy law forum – 2023. – Issue 2 C. 60-68 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://mlcjournal.ru/S231243500026207-5-1 (circulation date: 19.05.2024). DOI: 10.18254/S231243500026191-8
MLA	Loginovsky, Denis "Legal Support of Rational Use of Energy Resources." Energy law forum 2 (2023):60-68. DOI: 10.18254/S231243500026191-8
APA	Loginovsky D. (2023). Legal Support of Rational Use of Energy Resources. Energy law forum (2), pp.60-68 DOI: 10.18254/S231243500026191-8

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1	I Scope
2	The present-day level of concern over the state of energy security is stably growing both globally and in Russia, which is reflected in strategic economy development programs and annual addresses to the government authorities from the key government officials of the country. The President of the Russian Federation talked in the address to the Federal Assembly in 2022 [1] about the need for strict control and monitoring of the carbon footprint, reduction in greenhouse gas emissions taking into account climatic and geographic features of our country and its scientific and technological potential. V.V. Putin also called for the need to elaborate new complex approaches in the sphere of development of advanced areas of renewable power generation. The environmental agenda comes from real threats to the environment and proven destabilization of economic activities of the humanity. Subjects of the internal market are not especially interested in energy efficiency and are unwilling to attract investments to the sphere of the use of advanced green technologies. Domestic instruments constituting in growth of resource prices and upgrading of penalties fail to deliver the desired results in form of the establishment of the rational use of non-renewable energy resources.
3	The nearest bill review agenda covers the issues of amendments in terms of improvement of the existing systems of liquidation of the accumulated damage to the environment, amendment of the applicable administrative and criminal laws by upgrading of penalties for violations in the reviewed branch, in particular, by creation of systems of control and monitoring of violations in the branch, as well as in terms of information support [2]. The mentioned efforts are not small, however, there remains legal uncertainty in terms of direct levers of the promising and rational use of energy resources, the country follows the stagnation scenario of management of accumulated discrepancies forecasted by scientists of the Russian Academy of Natural History [3].
4	Such sequence of events in accordance with the natural laws and the economic development course embarked upon by the government will sooner or later reach a new qualitative phase of development of the society, economy and power industry. However, criminal interference of some groups with the safe and competitive energy market systems, terrorist threats and negative political and economic ambitions of hostile countries yet again challenge the Russian legal community to review the existing system of provisions that is unable to duly ensure the rational and safe use of energy resources at present and in the foreseeable future. Now is the time when one needs legislative boosting in the energy security sphere as the basis for the rational use and accumulation of energy resources.
5	II. Strategic Planning Documents and Regulations
6	One of the most important strategic planning documents of the branch is the Energy Strategy of the Russian Federation for the Period until 2035. The document highlights the inextricable connection between development of the energy industry and the national security. Rational management of natural resources and energy efficiency are among the priority areas. Risks in this sphere are managed exclusively by the state. From the doctrinal standpoint, energy security is a component of the national security and means the “condition of protection of the economy and population of the country from energy threats” in accordance with Clause (a), Part 4 of the Energy Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation. Irrational consumption or use of energy resources is an internal energy security threat in accordance with Art. 17 of the Energy Security Doctrine, another threat is absence or underdevelopment of the respective regulatory framework (Art. 20). That’s why improvement of the regulatory framework is named one of the main tasks of public administration in the energy security sphere (Art. 25).
7	The main federal laws in the energy saving sphere are as follows:
8	– The federal law On Energy Saving, Raising Energy Efficiency and Amendment of Separate Legal Acts of the Russian Federation (the “FL On Energy Saving”) [4] aimed at regulation of energy saving relations and raising energy efficiency by means of creation of legal, economic and organizational incentive grounds (Art. 1);
9	– The federal law On the Electrical Energy Industry [5] that inter alia stipulates regulation of relations between electric energy supplied to consumers and energy from non-renewable sources used for these purposes, i.e., energy efficiency (Art. 3);
10	– The federal law On Gas Supply [6] that regulates gas supply relations and stipulates principles of government regulation of the rational use of gas reserves (Art. 4);
11	– The federal law On Heat Supply [7] that establishes relations in terms of production, transmission, consumption of heat energy and general principles of the arrangement of safe and rational heat supply and activities in this sphere (Art. 3);

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