Energy

Holland & Knight's Energy Team includes former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) attorneys, former counsel to energy companies – including large investor-owned electric utilities and importers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – as well as former member of Congress who served on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee. We have the knowledge and experience to assist our energy clients in preparing for, and participating in, the rapidly changing electric and natural gas industries.

We work closely with attorneys and policy advisors in our Environment, Natural Resources and Public Policy & Regulation practices to address all issues that clients encounter in the production and sale of energy. We have represented energy clients before FERC, the Department of Energy, U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state public utility commissions (PUCs), electric regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs).  

In the electric area, we represent:

• investor-owned utilities
• regional and independent transmission entities
• power trading and risk management firms
• power marketers
• independent power producers
• public power authorities
• public utility districts
• electricity cooperatives
• renewable/alternative energy development companies, including hydro, wind, solar, waste-to-energy and biomass
• energy metering and technology providers
• power plant EPC contractors
• T&D equipment manufacturers
• money-center banks, investment banks and energy-focused financial institutions (including private equity funds and insurance companies)
• transmission line communications technology developers

In the oil and natural gas area, we represent:

• oil and gas utility companies
• pipeline owners and operators
• LNG shipping companies
• LNG terminal operators
• exploration and production (E&P) companies
• marketing, trading and risk management firms
• pipeline and LNG EPC services contractors

We also represent:

• coal and other natural resource companies
• nuclear power plant owners and operators
• hydroelectric producers
• equity and debt providers and energy financial institutions
• insurance companies and private equity firms
• large purchasers of electricity, oil and natural gas
• governments and developers in privatization and concession

Regulatory

Our Energy Team represents energy companies in all aspects of national, state and local regulatory matters. Energy Team members are trained in traditional cost-of-service ratemaking, as well as more recent competitive regulatory theory. Working before FERC and the various state PUCs, we understand the importance of tailoring regulatory strategies to meet the unique needs of a particular client and accommodate existing and anticipated state and national regulation, technology and infrastructure. Our regulatory experience includes:

• FERC and state PUC rate cases
• FERC and state PUC licensing and certification proceedings
• FERC and state PUC enforcement proceedings
• FERC and state PUC compliance and transaction approval cases
• state PUC need determination proceedings
• regulatory restructuring and development matters
• stranded cost proceedings and related financing matters
• power plant and transmission siting
• environmental permitting and enforcement

Legislative

Our Energy Team represents electric utilities and other major energy companies on regulatory, environmental, tax and appropriations legislation before the U.S. Congress and state legislatures. We also work with the White House and the governors, as well as executive branch agencies at the state and federal level on energy and environmental policy on a daily basis. Our in-house legislative, public relations, regulatory, and land use professionals are closely coordinated and routinely partner with our energy clients to ensure their advocacy and communication needs are satisfied. Our integrated approach is not only effective and efficient, it preserves privileged and confidential communications between Holland & Knight and our energy clients. Our legislative experience includes:

• representing investor-owned electric utility on federal legislative and crisis communication issues pertaining to the blackout in the summer of 2003
• representing major energy companies in electric utility restructuring legislative initiatives
• representing electric utility clients on Clean Air Act issues
• representing electric energy companies on appropriation issues
• representing energy company in public relations and crisis communication issues associated with power plant accident in 2002
• representing major energy companies in monitoring energy related legislation on both the national and state levels
• representing investor-owned electric utility in passing state legislation authorizing the utility to recover environmental compliance costs

Litigation

The Energy Team provides full service litigation and litigation support representation in contested matters throughout the world. Our experience includes:

• power purchase agreement disputes
• project finance and development disputes, including financial defaults
• coal, oil and natural gas pricing, production and royalty disputes
• Federal False Claims Act litigation involving energy production
• utility eminent domain and condemnation
• construction and major equipment lawsuits
• contested mergers, acquisitions and RFPs
• defense of regulatory enforcement proceedings

Transactional 

Our energy attorneys assist commercial lenders, export credit agencies, multilateral development banks, developers and contractors in projects all over the world. We are thoroughly familiar with privatization, concession, RFP and IPP structures, as well as the provisions of EPC contracts, service and management contracts, operations and maintenance agreements, licenses, leases and similar arrangements. We incorporate advanced risk allocation and mitigation techniques to resolve complex issues encountered when financing infrastructure projects. In addition, we have extensive experience in assisting private, nonprofit and governmental entities in structuring, negotiating and documenting a wide range of financial derivative products. Our collective experience includes:

• mergers, privatization, concessions, RFPs, actions, acquisitions and acquisition finance transactions
• energy aggregation agreements and large industrial procurements
• contracts for transmission, fuel supply and power offtake
• financing for oil, gas and LNG facilities, including maritime financing issues
• tax-leveraged transactions
• rule 144A and other capital market finance vehicles
• sale/auction of oil, gas and electric generation facilities, including pipelines and transmission system
• national, state and local taxation
• commodity trading and risk management transactions
• IRB and other “private-use” exception project conduit bond financings
• interest rate, commodity and weather contract swaps, options, and other derivative management documents