- Represented a large investor-owned utility in the Southeast on FERC relicensing matters for 20 hydropower dams (with a total installed capacity of 720 MW), providing advice and legal counsel regarding the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Clean Water Act (CWA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), and other statutory and regulatory schemes.
- Represented a state governmental power agency in New York over a span of nearly 20 years in three consecutive FERC relicensings of some of the largest hydropower projects in the U.S. (912 MW, 2,755 MW and 1,160 MW of pumped storage), counseling on the full range of environmental and natural resource issues arising in the proceedings and reaching in each proceeding multiparty relicensing settlement agreements that comprehensively resolved all major issues raised for each project.
- Represented a large investor-owned utility in its efforts to reach and implement a groundbreaking settlement providing for the transfer of several large hydropower dams in California and Oregon (169 MW) to a newly formed public benefit corporation, followed by the decommissioning and removal of the dams. Upon completion, this representation would facilitate the largest dam removal project ever undertaken in the U.S.
- Represented a large municipal utility in the Northwest in the FERC relicensing of a multiple-unit hydropower project (690 MW) in Washington state.
- Successfully represented a state governmental water and power agency in the Midwest in a highly contested FERC license amendment involving reservoir level changes to its major recreation and hydropower project (105 MW) — a proposal that was challenged and opposed by numerous federal and state agencies, a local municipality, and several Indian tribes.
- Represented a major investor-owned utility in the Southwest on a full range of issues involving relicensing, FERC license implementation and compliance, federal lands, project decommissioning, water quality, dam safety, and settlement implementation for a fleet of 36 hydropower projects (total capacity of 1,176 MW).
- Represented and provided strategic and legal counsel to a state power agency on all environmental and public lands issues related to a new major hydropower project (600 MW) in Alaska, which was proposed to be the first large, new hydroelectric dam project constructed in the United States in more than four decades.
- Negotiated comprehensive, multiparty settlement agreements with numerous federal and state regulators for the relicensing of one of the largest reservoirs in the U.S., which spans two states (Texas and Louisiana), has more than 1,200 miles of shoreline (and significant private and commercial shoreline development) and nearly 4.5 million acre-feet of storage, and is the only FERC-licensed project in the U.S. that is jointly owned and operated by two states.
- Represented a privately held energy company in numerous matters related to a portfolio of hydropower projects throughout the northeastern United States, including the negotiation and restructuring of various project documents (including PPAs, many of which included tracking accounts, as well as interconnection and operation and maintenance agreements), disputes with utility purchasers before state public utility commissions, acquisitions and dispositions, and project financings.
- Represented several paper companies in various matters related to their cogeneration and hydropower generating assets, including work on project agreements/PPAs, acquisitions, eligibility for backup power rates, QF and other regulatory matters, tracking account disputes, and a wide variety of transactional matters.
- Represented a Canadian income fund with respect to its acquisition and financing of various hydropower assets in the United States.
- Represented two hydropower plants in upstate New York with respect to the sale of their projects for nominal consideration to the investor-owned utility that purchased their output, after the investor-owned utility realized that the projects would be unlikely to repay tracking account balances established under their respective QF PPAs.
- Represented a leading independent power producer in its purchase of a hydroelectric generating facility in New York.
- Represented a large independent power producer in the refinancing of a hydroelectric generating facility in Pennsylvania.
- Represented an international utility in the acquisition of a 400 MW pumped storage hydro project and the potential acquisition of the project development rights for another 1,200 MW pumped storage hydro project.
- Successfully represented a large coalition of hydroelectric licensees in administrative litigation before FERC and appellate proceedings concerning FERC’s federal land fees program, which yielded more than $20 million in refunds and cost savings following the court’s ruling in City of Idaho Falls v. FERC, 629 F.3d 222 (D.C. Cir. 2011).
- Successfully represented a coalition of hydropower licensees in administrative litigation before FERC, appellate proceedings before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and subsequent remand proceedings related to FERC’s administrative annual charge program — the results of which have yielded more than $100 million in refunds and cost savings to the hydropower industry. City of Tacoma v. FERC, 331 F.3d 106 (D.C. Cir. 2003).
- Successfully defended a major state water agency before FERC and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in response to a complaint filed by local stakeholders alleging multiple license violations relating to the operation of a large hydropower project (763 MW) in California.
- Represented a multistate developer in a suit brought by environmental activist groups challenging a high-end lakefront residential development project based upon alleged violations of the ESA and NEPA.
- Represented hydropower licensees before FERC and federal and state courts in the successful resolution of a complaint and compliance proceedings involving matters such as lake levels, minimum flows, shoreline management plans, fish kills, and water withdrawal compensation.
- Counseled hydropower owners in several federal district court and appellate proceedings in Louisiana, New York, Texas, and South Carolina in flooding-related litigation following significant precipitation events and related spills at FERC-licensed projects.
- Represented a public utility in multiple matters involving enforcement of shoreline management guidelines for licensed hydroelectric projects, unauthorized dredging and/or unauthorized fill of shoreline areas, and litigation involving property rights within the utility’s flood and flowage easements.
- Successfully defeated attempts by a North Carolina county in a series of lawsuits to block the removal of a dam, the surrender of which was required as a condition for FERC relicensing of six hydroelectric projects.
- Represented the National Hydropower Association before Congress and executive departments and agencies in a legislative proposal to improve and modernize the hydropower licensing process.
- Successfully represented and advised the National Hydropower Association before Congress and numerous executive departments and agencies in attaining the hydropower reform provisions in the America’s Water Infrastructure Act, Pub. L. No. 115-270.
- Successfully advised and represented an Alaska public power agency before Congress, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service in obtaining targeted federal legislation — the Swan Lake Hydroelectric Project Boundary Correction Act, Pub. L. No. 115-200 — which converted federal lands within Tongass National Forest that are associated with a hydropower project to state ownership.
- Successfully advised and represented two public power entities in Texas and Louisiana before Congress, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Forest Service in obtaining special federal legislation that relieved regulatory burdens associated with federal lands at their hydropower project, including the payment of annual charges and conditioning authority of the U.S. Forest Service. Pub. L. No. 113-291.
- Successfully advised and represented an electric utility in Alaska before FERC, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in obtaining federal legislation that authorized the occupancy of federal lands within Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge associated with a proposed expansion of a FERC-licensed hydropower project. Pub. L. No. 115-201.
- Frequently advised and represented hydropower interests in rulemaking and similar proceedings before FERC and other federal agencies affecting regulatory requirements applicable to water and power development, with respect to recent proposed rules changing the implementation of the Endangered Species Act, advance notice of proposed rules implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, FERC’s annual charges program, and FERC’s Policy Statement establishing a default license term of 40 years and recognizing “early action” measures when establishing license terms.
