State Electricity Regulation in the Shadow of Hughes and EPSA

1.5 CLE credits in the Areas of Professional Practice category. The credit was both transitional and non-transitional.

Last year, the Supreme Court handed down two major opinions – Electric Power Supply Association v. FERC, and Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing – that provided new guidance on the contours of Federal Power Act and the boundaries of state versus federal authority over the electricity sector. On November 14^th, the Guarini Center held a discussion with leading experts to examine the implications of these decisions for innovative state electricity policies such as New York’s Clean Energy Standard and REV.

This event was produced in collaboration with Latham & Watkins LLP.

Speakers:

• Michael Gergen (’92), Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
• Richard B. Miller (’87), Assistant General Counsel in the Regulatory Services Department, Con Edison
• David L. Schwartz, Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
• Abraham Silverman, Chief Regulatory Counsel for NRG Energy, Inc.
• Eleanor Stein, Adjunct Professor, Albany Law School; Expert, America’s Power Plan

Michael Gergen a partner in Latham & Watkins LLP’s Washington, D.C. office, is a member of the Energy Regulatory and Markets Practice as well as the Project Finance Practice.

Mr. Gergen has extensive experience developing practical applications of economics, finance and regulatory law to assist clients involved in the electric, natural gas and other network industries in the United States and internationally. Mr. Gergen represents entities involved in electric generation, transmission and distribution, natural gas transportation, storage and distribution, electric and natural gas marketing and trading, and finance, as well as international governments and financial institutions. Mr. Gergen also assists clients regarding federal and state financing support and incentive programs for clean energy technologies, products and services.

Mr. Gergen has assisted clients on a wide range of transactional, controversy, policy and legislative matters and has represented clients both in commercial negotiations and before various federal and state regulatory agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and various state public utility commissions, and numerous federal and state courts and arbitral bodies. Mr. Gergen also has served as an economist for an investor-owned public utility, as well as an economic consultant for a state energy commission.

Mr. Gergen is listed as a leading energy attorney in Who’s Who Legal and in Chambers USA, which describes him as having “developed a positive reputation in the industry as ‘a quick, clever and creative lawyer.’” He has given a variety of speeches on energy regulatory and policy matters. He is a member of the Federal Energy Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Mr. Gergen was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2012 as a recommended attorney in Energy Law. Mr. Gergen is an Adjunct Professor of Law and is a member of the Board of Advisors for the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law.

Richard Miller has held a variety of positions at Con Edison since 1998 overseeing legal and policy issues concerning wholesale electric markets, demand response, energy efficiency and electric and gas operations.  He is currently an assistant general counsel in the regulatory services department.  From 1998-2003,  he was Senior Vice-President for Energy at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (where he oversaw City energy policy). Prior to 1998, he was an energy regulatory attorney for Cohen and Dax in Albany, New York, and a litigation associate at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City.  He has written articles on law and energy policy that have been published in the Energy Law Journal and Public Utilities Fortnightly and is a former President of Northeast Energy Bar Association.  He is a graduate of Amherst College and New York University School of Law. On a personal note, he lives in New York City and uses a bicycle as his primary form of transportation, bicycling approximately 5000 miles annually.

David Schwartz is a partner in the Finance Department of Latham & Watkins LLP’s Washington, D.C. office. He serves as global Chair of the Energy Regulatory and Markets Practice, is a member of the Project Finance Group, and is Co-chair of the firm’s Global Energy – Power Industry Group. He has extensive experience representing entities involved in electric generation, transmission and distribution, electric and gas marketing and trading, and gas transportation and distribution.

Mr. Schwartz has been active in the formation of the developing electricity markets in the United States; led transactional and regulatory teams in mergers and acquisitions and divestitures of energy companies and assets; litigated contract, rate and transmission access disputes; and drafted federal and state energy legislation. He also has extensive experience in negotiating power purchase and sale agreements, electric transmission agreements, natural gas transportation agreements, energy management agreements, and electric and gas interconnection agreements.

Mr. Schwartz regularly advises clients on energy matters before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), various state public utility commissions, the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Energy (DOE).

Mr. Schwartz is consistently recognized as a top energy attorney in Corporate Counsel Magazine, Best Lawyers in America, Who’s Who Legal: Energy, Chambers USA, Chambers Global, and The Legal 500 US, which recently selected him as a “Leading Lawyer” for his transactional energy practice.

Mr. Schwartz is a member of the American Bar Association and has held leadership positions in the Energy Bar Association.

Abraham Silverman, heads the regulatory affairs group and is chief regulatory counsel for NRG Energy, Inc., an independent power producer with over 50 GW of generation nationwide, and one of the largest solar and wind portfolios in the word. NRG, through its various retail affiliates, serves over 3 million retail customers in 16 states. Abe counsels the company on regulatory strategy and compliance issues, and does extensive wholesale and retail market design work in each of the organized markets, as well as in the non-organized markets. Prior to joining NRG in 2008, Abe served at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of General Counsel for over three years, and was an associate at the law firm of Perkins Coie, based in Washington, DC. Abe graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Geology and a B.A. in English, and then received his Juris Doctor from The George Washington University School of Law.

Eleanor Stein is a former Administrator Law Judge with the New York Public Service Commission, and former project manager of its Reforming the Energy Vision initiative. She teaches Law of Climate Change: Domestic & Transnational at Albany Law School and the University at Albany and is now an expert with America’s Power Plan. She served as an Administrative Law Judge at the New York State Public Service Commission from 1994-2014; until November 2015 she was Project Manager for the Commission’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) initiative for a more customer-centered, renewable, and distributed energy future.  In 2015 she received a Master of Laws degree with distinction in climate change law and policy from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.  She teaches Law of Climate Change: Domestic & Transnational at Albany Law School and the Power Dialog at the University at Albany.  While at the NY PSC, she presided over or mediated the Renewable Portfolio Standard (2004), the Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (2007) and the Con Edison Resiliency Collaborative (2013-14).  Her areas of interest include public policy dispute resolution, mobilizing public participation in energy matters, and climate justice.  She is on the Board of EcoViva, a US-based project in solidarity with climate adaptation and sustainability in rural El Salvador.  She is an expert with America’s Power Plan.