ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the pursuit of regulatory equity through an administrative "exceptions process". Such a process relieves a person, firm, or entity subject to a valid statutory or administrative rule from the legal obligation to comply with the rule. The chapter explores the tension between the conceptions of justice represented by rules and by equity highlighting the ways in which this tension is expressed in a regulatory context. It concludes by posing broad questions about the exceptions process that the study will attempt to address. The chapter examines the exceptions process in energy regulation through four case studies of exceptions decision making at the Department of Energy (DOE), as administered by the Office of Hearings and Appeals. It illustrates certain themes or tendencies that seem endemic to an exceptions process of this kind. It analyzes arid evaluates the essential features of the DOE's exceptions process, concluding with a discussion of the exceptions process as a "safety valve".
