Energy Regulation & Policy

Perkins Coie is pleased to announce that the firm’s Environment, Energy & Resources practice was recognized in the 2011 edition of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.

Perkins Coie has added attorneys John Iani and Paul Smyth to its Environment, Energy & Resources practice.  Iani joins the Seattle office as Partner.  Smyth joins the Washington, D.C. office as Of Counsel.  Iani and Smyth join more than 70 Perkins Coie attorneys focused on environmental, energy, and resource matters.

Glenn Benson has joined the firm as of counsel in the Environment, Energy & Resources group.

A team of Perkins Coie attorneys successfully closed the Tri-Group military housing privatization project for Actus Lend Lease LLC. The project, a $254 million bond financing of a 50-year public-private venture with the Department of the Air Force, involves the development, rehabilitation, new construction, operation, management and maintenance of Air Force family housing and related improvements at three Air Force installations in Colorado and California.

Perkins Coie announced that Partners Arthur Kolios, James Cowan and Harold DeGraff have joined the firm.

Perkins Coie announced today that Carol Smoots has joined Perkins Coie's Washington, DC office as a member of the firm's national Environment and Natural Resources Practice Group.

On March 15, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has exclusive jurisdiction over natural gas futures contracts and that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had exceeded its authority when it fined Brian Hunter, a trader for hedge fund Amaranth, $30 million for allegedly manipulating natural gas futures contracts.

On September 30, 2011, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation filed a petition with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requesting that FERC approve new enforcement mechanisms for addressing potential violations of mandatory electric reliability standards.

On July 21, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued "Order 1000," a major rulemaking imposing new electric transmission planning and cost allocation requirements on public utility transmission providers.

In American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, (June 20, 2011), the U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8-0 opinion, held that federal courts have no authority to apply the federal common law of nuisance to control greenhouse gas emissions.

A year has passed since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC" or the "Commission") issued a landmark series of electric reliability orders that riled the industry.  Although progress has been made towards healing the rift created by the orders, important jurisdictional conflicts between FERC and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation ("NERC") remain.

This is the first of a two-part update on climate change risk management and how it might create business risks — ranging from supply chain interruptions to third-party claims for economic damages caused by unusual weather events.