|
Mark is a partner in the Energy Section of the Washington, D.C. office. Since 1981 he has been extensively engaged in the representation of energy industry participants before federal and state agencies charged with jurisdiction over energy markets and their participants. His representations have focused on the rates, terms, and conditions associated with gaining access to regulated energy transmission systems, transactions involving changes in ownership of jurisdictional assets, and unbundling matters. Particularly, Mark’s practice includes a wide array of issues under the Federal Power Act, the Natural Gas Act, and related federal and state statutes involving the regulation of energy industry participants.
Mark has represented end users in rate proceedings and negotiations with numerous utilities including Duquesne Light, Allegheny Power utility subsidiaries, First Energy utility subsidiaries, Baltimore Gas & Electric, TXU, affiliates of Houston Light and Power, subsidiaries of American Electric Power, Florida Power & Light, and other utilities. He has appeared before the regulatory commissions of numerous states on behalf of end users and coalitions of market participants.
He has been and is integrally involved in proceedings involving unbundling transmission, distribution, and generation rates in PJM and ERCOT. He has been involved in counseling multiple merchants of electric power in the Southeast U.S., and in filings on their behalf with the FERC. His work frequently requires the integration of both transactional and regulatory goals. He has been involved in counseling clients in the SERC and ISO-NE regions. He is defending entities doing business in the California and the Pacific Northwest that have been accused of charging rates for electricity and capacity inconsistent with the standards of the FPA. He also has been involved in arbitrations involving interpretations of ISO rules and technical aspects of tariff provisions. Mark’s activity in state electric restructuring proceedings also benefits clients by providing a state regulatory backdrop to federal policy issues, assisting in synchronizing positions, and negotiations to achieve goals consistent with both federal and state perspectives.
He has been extensively engaged in issues arising from unbundling, disaggregation, increasing competitive pressures on utilities and the terms and conditions of access to transmission facilities. Transition and stranded cost quantification and timing strategies have driven the counseling and litigation postures of participants in a number of proceedings in which he has been involved.
REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE
Electric
Successfully represented entities engaged in generation and marketing in arbitrations against ISO claims
Involved in state proceedings in numerous states, including California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida and Maryland
Served as chief energy regulatory counsel in numerous bankruptcy proceedings, including for bankrupt electric generators and their creditors
International energy arbitrations involving pricing of natural gas supplies and power plant fuels
Pipelines
Served in first chair capacity involving on the record proceedings for pipelines in over a dozen NGA Section 4 proceedings involving rates, and has represented other market participants in rate cases as well
Has counseled and litigated cases involving innovative pipeline project transactions, including interconnection disputes, contested certificate matters, issues arising from pipeline facilities shared by two pipelines and financing
Litigated seminal cases involving application of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to oil and natural gas pipelines
Advises/counsels regarding transactions
Pipelines & Electric
Reorganizations/restructuring of regulated energy enterprises
BRIEFINGS, SEMINARS & SPEECHES
Anti-Market Manipulation Rules Under FERC Order No. 670 (April 19, 2007)
PROFESSIONAL / CIVIC AFFILIATIONS
Member - Federal Energy Bar Association
Listed
Profiled as one of the leading Energy lawyers in Chambers USA, America's Leading Business Lawyers (2005)
Profiled as one of the leading Energy lawyers in Chambers USA, America's Leading Business Lawyers (2006)
Profiled as one of the U.S.A.'s leading Energy lawyers in Chambers Global (2006)
Rated - "AV" Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating, indicating "very high to preeminent" legal ability | 