Aid Effectiveness for Climate-Compatible Development
2012-11-14 12:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | NYU School of Law, Furman Hall, Lester Pollack Colloquium, 245 Sullivan Street, New York, NY, 10012

Green for Green: The Business and Law of Renewable Energy Finance
2013-02-15 09:00 - 17:00 | NYU School of Law, Greenberg Lounge, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012, United States
The Symposium will focus on the key legal, financial and policy issues involved the finance of renewable energy. What can our governments do to facilitate investment and production? What can private companies do in uncertain times? What lessons can we learn from abroad? Leaders from legal practice and academia, private investment, energy companies and all levels of government will cover these and other questions in three panel discussions. The Symposium is presented by the NYU Environmental Law Journal, the NYU Environmental Law Society, and the Frank J. Guarini Center for Land Use and Environmental Law.
Speakers include Nat Keohane (NYU School of Law; former Special Assistant to the President, National Economic Council), David Hill (NRG Energy), Reed Hundt (Coalition for Green Capital), Robert Freedman (Shearman & Sterling), Jonathan Wolfson (Solazyme), John Williams (NYSERDA), Keith Johnson (Wall St. Journal), Michael Likosky (Institute for Public Knowledge).

Fourth Abu Dhabi Workshop on Climate Finance
2013-04-10 | NY

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan Speaks at Workshop on Electricity Microgrids
2013-08-08 | NY
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan was at the Law School in August to discuss the President’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, which he chaired. His presentation was part of a workshop organized by the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law on using microgrids to increase the resiliency of the larger electrical grid.
Microgrids are small-scale grids—usually the size of city block or university campus—that have their own generating ability (through renewable power or gas-fired generators) and which can operate when the larger grid goes down. NYU’s microgrid and generation facility provided power to NYU buildings on Washington Square Park after Hurricane Sandy when lower Manhattan was blacked out. The workshop was a part of the increased focus on energy law and policy by the Guarini Center. The energy work is being led by two new center fellows: Distinguished Senior Fellow Paul Francis ’80, former Director of New York State Agency Redesign and Efficiency, and Senior Fellow in Energy Jonathan Schrag, former Deputy Commissioner for Energy and Environment of Connecticut.
Secretary Donovan, a former fellow at NYU Law’s Furman Center on Real Estate and Urban Policy, spoke about the work of the Task Force, which released its final report a week later, and focused on the ways that NYC can rebuild to withstand storms like Hurricane Sandy. He described how the federal government had responded to the disaster, including spending billions of dollars through HUD and FEMA in the city and state. He emphasized need for the federal government to align the funding with local rebuilding efforts, and discussed the potential for using microgrids in NYC to help provide power for critical facilities when the larger grid fails.
Other workshop speakers examined how to increase the number of microgrids in urban centers like NYC, and discussed existing systems and the legal and financial barriers to new microgrids. Speakers included: ConEd President Craig Ivey; Richard Kauffman, Chairman of Energy and Finance for New York; John MacWilliams, Senior Finance Advisor to Department of Energy Secretary Moniz; Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer; Sergej Mahnovski, Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning.

Marshall Islands’ Minister Tony de Brum Talks about Climate Leadership from the Pacific Islands
2013-09-26 | NY
On Thursday, September 26th, Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Senator Tony de Brum, the Minister in Assistance to the President (equivalent to a Vice President), joined Professor Paolo Galizzi’s International Environmental Law class to talk about climate change in the Pacific and their recent work to spur greater commitments in the international climate change negotiations.
Senator de Brum spoke about the Majuro Declaration on Climate Leadership, the result of an early September summit of Pacific leaders in the RMI capital. “We are not just trying to save our islands,” said Senator de Brum, “we are trying to save the entire world. If the Pacific islands disappear, then it will already be too late for everyone else.” The islands, along with Australia and New Zealand, pledged to make greater emissions reductions and expand the use of renewable energy—the Cook Islands, Niue, Tuvalu and Vanuatu will be using 100 percent renewable energy by 2020.
De Brum also talked about the climate diplomacy around the Majuro Declaration, which was presented to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon by RMI President Christopher Loeak as a complement to Moon’s efforts to build political will for accelerating climate action. The islands also met with and convinced US Secretary of State John Kerry to sign the Declaration and commit to greater, although at this point still unspecified, climate action.
The Marshall Islands, a small chain of islands in the southern Pacific, is keenly aware of the impacts of a changing climate. In the past few months, Majuro has been hit by a ‘king tide’ that crashed over a protective seawall and flooded its airport runway, while in the northern atolls there was a severe drought.

Regulating Climate Change with the Clean Air Act
2013-10-13 | NY
On Wednesday, October 30, Vickie Patton ’90, general counsel of the Environmental Defense Fund and Jared Snyder, Assistant Commissioner for Air, Climate and Energy for New York State, joined Professors Richard Revesz and Richard Stewart to discuss the EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
In October, the Supreme Court decided to review only a narrow issue in an expansive DC Circuit Court decision on greenhouse gas regulation. The panel thought that this limited grant of certiorari was excellent news for the future of efforts to combat climate change. In particular, the Court’s decision not to take up the endangerment finding for greenhouse gases leaves intact the administration’s ability to pursue effective climate change policies through the Clean Air Act. “It’s really important the court did not grant review of the endangerment finding,” said Ms. Patton, “That’s the cornerstone.”
Nonetheless, the Court’s decision on the rule regarding Prevention of Significant Deterioration at new and modified sources could have both symbolic and practical effects on EPA’s ability to limit the harmful effects of dirtier, older, grandfathered plants that operate past their useful life.
Finally, the panel considered how EPA can most effectively address the current greenhouse gas pollution from the power sector by crafting flexible mechanisms in its current rulemaking covering existing power plants. Mr. Snyder expressed the hope that the power sector in a state can be viewed as a whole, rather than requiring regulation at the plant level. This will allow, he said, market-based mechanisms like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initative (RGGI) to be used to control CO2 emissions.

Lowering the Cost of Capital for Renewables
2013-11-20 | NY
On Wednesday, November 20th, John Rhodes, President and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Eli Katz, Partner at Chadbourne & Parke LLP, and Paul Francis, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law and Trustee of NYU School of Law discussed federal and state policies and private finance mechanisms to drive down the cost of capital for renewable energy projects. The discussion covered a wide-range of policies and incentives including production and investment tax credits, accelerated depreciation, Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), and NYS’ proposed Green Bank along with YieldCo and securitization structures.

Eli Katz observed that the recent growth in the renewable energy industry has been supported by four primary factors: alarm about climate change, concerns about energy security, renewable portfolio standards in the states, and federal tax policy and argued that federal tax policy has probably been the largest driver of this growth.
The speakers agreed, however, that relying primarily on tax benefits (credits and accelerated depreciation) was inefficient and created uncertainty because of the episodic extension and expiration of renewable energy tax credits. Tax benefits increases the cost of capital for renewable energy projects by 8-9% by restricting investors to the limited number of “tax equity” players that number 15 investors “on a good day” and increases the transaction costs for such projects by requiring elaborate deal structures to monetize the tax benefits available to these projects. Taking advantage of these benefits remains vital to any renewable energy project since about 45% of a project’s structure is often being paid through the federal tax code.
John Rhodes described a “pragmatic” approach at the state level, where New York strives to make sure that its renewable energy subsidy programs, which are not tax credit-based, integrate readily with federal programs. The proposed “Green Bank” in New York State can help close the financing gap for renewable energy projects through “aggregation, credit enhancement, and securitization” and should provide the kind of transparency and consistency about state incentives that will decrease reliably over time that will send a clear market signal and drive business model and technology innovation in the market place.
Alternative federal policies attracting attention like MLPs and REITs may help drive down the cost of capital (perhaps by 20%) and attract more investors, but they don’t widen the pool of eligible tax investors and so are an imperfect or incomplete substitute for the tax benefit incentives for renewable energy.
For more information on some of the mechanisms discussed on this panel, see the Guarini Center’s Fact Sheet.

Workshop on Building Block Strategies for Global Climate Action
2013-12-12 - 2013-12-13 | NY
As a result of failures over many years to reach an encompassing international agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions, there is increasing recognition of serious problems in basic design features of the sole global climate change architecture, the UNFCCC. This recognition has provoked calls over the past few years about bottom up strategies for climate. Yet, there has been little serious and sustained work on the necessary characteristics of bottom up regimes that will avoid the structural failings of the UNFCCC.
This workshop is designed to contribute to the work of building alternative, more diverse, less the centralized global climate architectures. It will consider three strategies for structuring bottom up regimes, which we call a “building block approach.” These strategies aim to build transnational regulatory regimes, involving (at least initially) a limited number of public and/or private actors to undertake activities, often for reasons other than achieving greenhouse gas reductions, but that will achieve significant greenhouse gas reductions as a co-benefit. These strategies aim to complement the UNFCCC rather than serve as a substitute.
The workshop agenda can be downloaded here.
Relevant Publications:

Daniel Esty Offers Solution to “Fundamental Breakdown” in Environmental Policy
2014-02-03 | NY
On the morning of Monday, February 3, Daniel Esty wrapped up his three-year term as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). That evening, he arrived at NYU School of Law, where Professor Richard Stewart, director of the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law, welcomed him for his first post-DEEP talk.
Esty’s lecture conveyed the practiced capability and finesse needed to gather bipartisan support for an innovative environmental strategy. His manner was in utter contrast to what he described as today’s national failure: the “very fundamental breakdown in Washington when it comes to energy policy, climate change policy, [and] environmental policy.” He described a stagnant federal government that has moved little on the environment since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty of 1992.
In response to Washington’s foot-dragging, he and Governor Dannel Malloy pushed for fresh thinking at the state level. DEEP, Esty said, is better spelled “DEEEP”—energy, environment, and economy. It’s the “triple E agenda.”
“You cannot pursue a clean energy agenda without simultaneously pursuing cheaper and more reliable energy,” he argued. That is, people are far likelier to support clean energy if it’s easy to finance and cheaper than fossil fuels.
So, among his goals was “normalizing” clean energy—making it normal for people to invest in clean energy projects. This means standard forms and checkpoints. It also means that Connecticut’s “green bank”—the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority—now helps “de-risk” investments in clean energy projects. Created in 2011, it can take the first 2% of defaults on clean energy investments, encouraging banks to make loans for such projects at lower interest rates.
This initiative has already impacted New York: in 2013, Governor Andrew Cuomo set up the New York Green Bank, a division of the New York State Energy and Research and Development Authority, with an initial $210 million funding.
In Connecut, the green bank, combined with other practices like long-term contracts and reverse-auctions, has meant the following: Esty said that when he took over, Connecticut was paying about 40 cents per kilowatt-hour of solar power. Since then, they’ve pushed that price down to 15 cents per kilowatt-hour; on grid-scale projects in New England, he said the cost is under eight cents per kilowatt-hour.
“That is grid-scale parity,” he concluded. “And by the way, in my mind, that’s the end to the climate-change challenge: It’s not a big treaty, it’s not a Waxman-Markey big cap and trade bill. It is simply a driving of innovation through the series of innovation steps, so that the price of renewable energy comes in under the price of the fossil fuel status quo.” If clean energy is cheaper, people will adopt it, period. “That’s the 21st century model that I propose to you tonight.”
Esty served as commissioner while on a public-service leave from Yale University, where he is the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy in the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and Clinical Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale Law School. He is also director of both the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for Business and the Environment. These roles are a testament to a career dedicated to the environment.
In his resignation letter, Esty wrote of his experience, “As a boy spending the day at Black Rock State Park, I never could have imagined that I would have the opportunity to lead the agency so central to protecting that park as well as Long Island, and all of the other parks, forests, rivers, and lakes that make Connecticut a special place to live and work.”
After three years of dedication, he was able to offer Connecticut as a hopeful example, a “model for how an energy agenda moves state by state perhaps. Maybe someday nationally.”

Richard Kauffman Sees Promise for Climate Change in Green Banks
2014-02-20 | NY
On February 20, Richard Kauffman presented the second installment of the Energy Policy Discussion series. In February of last year, Kauffman was appointed the first-ever Chairman of Energy and Finance for New York, and since June 2013, he has also filled the role of chairman for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
His lecture was, in many ways, an excellent counterpart to the series’ previous installment with Daniel Esty, former commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Like Esty, Kauffman emphasized that the current context for promoting renewable energy growth is difficult. “The headwinds against a robust renewable energy program are in some sense getting stronger,” he said. Federal financial support for renewable energy is dropping off. And because natural gas remains cheap, cleaner yet more expensive forms of energy like wind and solar power aren’t catching on.
However, he said, “we have room to tack against these trends.” Decreasing federal financial support is incentive to look at how we can reduce the “soft costs” of renewables, which can be burdensome. In December 2013, for example, the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory calculated that for solar panel installations, such non-hardware costs can mean up to 64% of the total. One way we can reduce soft costs, Kauffman said, is by eliminating financial inefficiencies.
New York State is taking the initiative in promoting renewable energy. One project is the Green Bank, inspired by Connecticut’s Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority—the original “green bank.” Rather than subsidize renewable energy, the Green Bank strives to close gaps in access to funding.
Kauffman also suggested that greater competition among utilities companies and greater interaction between them and their customers can lead to more innovation. He encouraged utilities companies to respond to customers more efficiently by using “smart software.”
Before taking on the role of chairman, Kauffman was the senior advisor to US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. He was also CEO of Good Energies, now known as Bregal Energy, and chaired the Global Financial Group at Goldman Sachs.

Audrey Zibelman, NY PSC Chair, Plots New York’s Utility Policy
2014-03-03 | NY
Audrey Zibelman, chair of the New York State Public Service Commission since September 2013, set her vision for state utility policy in her keynote address at the “Utility Industry of the Future” symposium. The event was sponsored by the NYU Environmental Law Journal and NYU Environmental Law Society in collaboration with the Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law.
Paraphrasing Ken Olsen, a famous American computer engineer who said, “Nobody’s ever going to want a personal computer,” Zibelman made a comparison to the once-underestimated movement toward alternative energy. Zibelman has extensive experience in the public, private and not-for-profit energy and electricity sectors, and is a recognized expert in energy policy, markets and Smart Grid innovation. New York, she said, has an opportunity to demonstrate leadership on economic, efficiency, and security bases, and the technology will exceed our expectations.
Zibelman emphasized the importance of identifying the critical factors that will drive changes in energy development and transmission, formulating a policy vision for the state of New York, and identifying the key obstacles to overcome. Some of those obstacles include updating infrastructure, much of which is outdated and must be replaced. Other important considerations going forward include building a resilient system that will enable us to face the challenges of climate change, the need to take cyber and fiscal security into account, and facilitating greater customer engagement in the electricity business by supplying customers with more information and opportunities for choice. Utility companies will need to adjust to a changing demographic that is accustomed to having information at their fingertips, Zibelman noted.
The overarching theme of Zibelman’s speech was that the increasing importance of clean energy will force the industry to develop in ways that are not currently anticipated. Regulatory flexibility is key, as is getting things right in these first few years to lay the groundwork for success in the future. Finally, the industry should not underestimate the importance of educating customers so they understand what changes are being made and why. To that end, Zibelman underscored the need for the government, utilities, NGOs, and vendors to work together.

Richard Miller ’87 of ConEd Examines Path to More Competitive and Green Electric System
2014-03-27 | NY
How do we move toward a greener electric system while encouraging competitive markets and reliable utility access? Richard Miller ’87, director of the Energy Markets Policy Group for Con Edison (ConEd) addressed this issue as the third speaker in the Energy Policy Discussion series hosted by the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law.
Before entering into a complex discussion of the electric system’s future, Miller provided a layman’s overview of how electricity moves from generation plants to customers.
When it comes to electricity, he emphasized, a balance needs to be maintained between supply and demand. That is, when customers’ demand rises, generation—the supply—needs to be increased to meet it. But there is another option: customers can decrease their demand to meet the supply. This alternative, in which the customer reduces its demand, is called “demand response.”
“One of the goals of managing that electric system to generally try to make it cleaner and greener,” Miller said, “is to figure out ways that we can use that demand response more.”
From 1998 to 2003, Miller was senior vice president for energy at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. In 2003, he moved to ConEd, where he served as assistant general counsel, stepping into his current role in 2008.
He discussed the restructuring that took place in the 1990s, after which ConEd—which had been fully vertically integrated—would no longer control the electricity from the plants to the power lines to the customer. The federal government had the power plants sold off, turning them into a separate industry; hand-in-hand with this, power generators were given open-access to the transmission system which in turn came to be overseen by new agencies like the New York Independent Systems Operator (NYISO). The goal: increased competition.
Legally, this also meant a major jurisdictional change: this market, which once fell under state jurisdiction, was suddenly subject to federal jurisdiction. The NYISO, for example, answers to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
This change has raised a key question: How can states promote renewable power despite this jurisdictional change? Miller highlighted Maryland’s beleaguered attempt to accomplish this goal. He also discussed plans to build more transmission for public policy reasons, and the benefits and disadvantages of relying on “demand response” to decrease customer demand.
In his closing, he referred the address given by Audrey Zibelman, chair of the New York State Public Service Commission, during the “Utility Industry of the Future” symposium at NYU Law. She stated that the most cost-effective way to get to a better system is to use competitive markets.
“We all want a greener and cleaner system,” Miller concluded, “but we all want to do it in the least expensive way possible.”

The Practice of Energy Law
2014-04-17 18:30 - 20:00 | NYU School of Law, Vanderbilt Hall, Golding Lounge, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012, United States
The Practice of Energy Law, Insights from NYU Law Alumni at the forefront of the energy law field
Have you ever considered practicing energy law? Curious about what opportunities might exist in the field? Join us for a casual dinner with two NYU Law alumni who are at the forefront of the profession.
Please RSVP here. Students only. **Pizza will be served**
Speakers:

Eli M. Katz (LLM ’04), Partner, Chadbourne & Parke LLP
Phyllis J. Kessler (’72), Of Counsel, Duane Morris LLP

Eli M. Katz is a transactional lawyer who focuses on providing tax, legal and commercial advice to a broad range of clients in the energy and financial sectors. Many of Mr. Katz’s clients are active in the renewable energy and clean-tech industries where they operate across many sectors such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, biofuels, transmission, demand side management and energy saving retrofits. Mr. Katz regularly advises his clients on energy tax credits, government incentive programs, project development and finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and deployment structures and all forms of leasing transactions both in the United States and abroad. Over the past few years, Mr. Katz has led pioneering transactions in the renewable energy sector including the first leveraged lease of a wind farm, the first levered tax equity transaction to use the Section 1603 cash grant and one of the first tax equity transactions with a prepaid power contract. Some of his recent client representations include NRG Energy, Terra-Gen Power, LS Power, First Reserve Energy Investors, Metlife, the AES Corporation, First Wind, GE Capital, US Bancorp, and Goldman Sachs.
Phyllis J. Kessler practices in the area of energy law, with a focus on provision of electricity and gas through alternative sources, representing both providers and customers for energy services, and energy efficiency. As part of this practice, she advises clients on on-site generation, renewables (solar, wind and biofuel), interconnection, line extension, energy efficiency projects, power and gas marketing, clean coal projects, submetering, mission critical and many other issues related to the deregulated energy markets. She has significant experience representing and counseling clients on all aspects of regulatory and deregulation business issues associated with regulated and deregulated energy issues. Ms. Kessler represents power authorities, energy marketers, energy project developers, financial institutions and large customers (industrial, commercial, data center, apartment house, non-profit, university and hospital). She also appears on behalf of such clients in federal and state court energy litigation matters and regulatory proceedings in various states.

Dept. of Energy / GridWise Alliance Workshop on the Future of the Grid
2014-05-13 | NY
On May 13, 2014, the Guarini Center hosted the fourth regional “Future of the Grid” workshop organized by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity and the GridWise Alliance. The workshop examined the electricity industry’s vision of how the grid must evolve to satisfy America’s changing energy needs.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Guarini Center Senior Fellow Jonathan Schrag highlighted that the Department of Energy’s workshops coincide with the New York State Public Service Commission’s (PSC) initiative to transform New York State’s energy industry and regulatory practices. “New York State’s energy leadership has opened a window of opportunity to reshape electricity markets based on sound technical and economic analysis,” he said.
In the months ahead, the Guarini Center will continue to work closely with the various stakeholders in the PSC proceedings to devise innovative policy proposals that promote environmentally and economically sound outcomes.

Evolving Financial Landscape for Renewable Energy
2014-09-10 18:00 - 20:00 | NYU School of Law, D’Agostino Hall, Lipton Hall, 108 West 3rd Street, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Renewable energy has come to a financial crossroads: The renewable electricity production tax credit (PTC), which has fueled the growth of wind energy, expired on January 1 of this year, and Congress has yet to decide whether to renew it. The solar investment tax credit (ITC), which has encouraged the growth of solar, will expire in 2016. How can the US continue to drive the growth of renewable energy without relying on tax subsidies? What can our government do for us?

In his opening remarks for the “Evolving Financial Landscape for Renewable Energy” panel held on Wednesday, September 10, former Governor George Pataki gave a corporate spin to John F. Kennedy’s famous words on the subject: “Don’t go to Washington to say, ‘What can you do to give us a chance to have green energy?’ Drive the technology. Change the paradigm so that we can have solar panels that outperform traditional energy. Go to the marketplace.”
The power of consumer choice was the theme of the night’s conversation, which was hosted by the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law. Eli Katz LLM ’04, partner at Chadbourne & Parke, moderated the panel, which featured Neil Auerbach LLM ’84, CEO and managing partner of Hudson Clean Energy Partners; Steve Corneli, senior vice president of Policy & Strategy at NRG Energy; Dana Sands, managing director at TAG Energy Partners; and Jason Segal, managing director at Aldwych Capital Partners and a managing partner of the Environment and Renewables Group in New York. Pataki himself is now counsel at Chadbourne and Parke, which sponsored the event, where his practice focuses on energy, environmental, and corporate matters.

We don’t have to choose between having either a vibrant economy or renewable energy, Pataki stressed, calling that a “false dichotomy and a false choice.” Renewable energy can be economically competitive. As an example, he pointed to the rebuilding of Battery Park City after 9/11. When he insisted that all new buildings be constructed green, companies balked at what they called a financial burden. Yet Solaire, the 27-story residential tower now adjacent to the World Trade Center site and the first green residential high-rise in North America, gets a premium on rentals because it’s green.
“Invent, invest, create,” he told the audience, “and allow us to have the confidence that regardless of the political situation, the economic situation and the social situation are going to make renewable energy the energy of the future.”
The last ten years have shown a “truly phenomenal” cost reduction for renewables, Corneli pointed out, thanks in part to innovative business models and advances in technology. The price-competitiveness has changed the landscape. “We are on the cusp of a whole new set of drivers for renewable deployment that are not policy-independent but they’re not as policy-dependent as our industry has been in the past.”
As the cost of renewables decreases, consumers will be likelier to switch to renewables, he said. Meanwhile, utilities will raise their prices to make up for their lost revenue—thereby making renewables even more attractive.
Despite the promise of all these advances, however, Auerbach asserted that renewables still needs some measure of “affirmative action” from the government. First, consumer demand for power is not increasing, so there isn’t a drive to adopt new power sources; indeed, even as we use more electric devices and equipment, these devices themselves have become more energy-efficient. Secondly, because renewables provide an intermittent source of energy (for instance, solar energy is hard to come by at night), utility companies are less willing to go through the complex, expensive process of integrating them into the transmission and distribution system.
Regardless of these challenges, Auerbach speculated that three years from now, as more communities start moving off-grid and more consumers adopt “behind-the-meter” technologies like solar panel arrays, “The very function of the electric utility is going to be debated.”

Roundtable with Peruvian Minister of Environment
2014-09-24 | NY
Countries have agreed to write a new climate agreement to begin in 2020 and replace the Kyoto Protocol. The agreement will be finalized at the 21st UN Climate Convention Conference of the Parties (COP) in 2015 in Paris, but the text of the agreement will be finished this year at COP20 in Lima in December.
As host of COP20, Manual Pulgar Vidal, Minister of the Environment for Peru will be the President of the COP. The Peruvian COP Presidency and the Guarini Center are hosting an academic roundtable on issues related to climate change, and in particular, related to the outcome of the Lima COP.

Green Trade and Climate Action on the Road to COP21
2014-09-24 | NY
Shifting to a cleaner energy mix is essential to limit global temperature rise to the agreed 2-degree Celsius target as highlighted by the latest IPCC report. In order to achieve this, costs of renewable energy have to come down and markets need to be strengthened so as to allow for a scale-up of innovation, production, and deployment of sustainable energy technologies. Trade policy has an important role to play in this respect. The past few years have seen significant political momentum toward bringing down trade barriers in some of the relevant clean energy goods. Examples include the APEC initiative to reduce tariffs on a list of environmental goods, US President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan, and the launch of trade negotiations on an environmental goods agreement (EGA) in July this year by 14 like-minded WTO members.
The launch of EGA negotiations offers a timely opportunity for trade to effectively contribute to climate action if delegations involved identify, include, and prioritise clean energy goods as a first deliverable. The initiative has the potential to contribute positively through the upcoming COP 20 in Lima to the much-anticipated COP 21 in Paris in December 2015. Against this background, ICTSD and the Guarini Center (NYU School of Law) will convene a dialogue on green trade. The purpose of the dialogue is to raise awareness of the role of trade in climate change and sustainable energy among a non-trade audience; the event will underscore the positive role trade-related initiatives can play for climate action. The dialogue will involve the climate constituency in the process in order to ensure that a future environmental trade agreement delivers for climate change.
Speakers
James Bacchus (Chair, Global Practice at Greenberg Traurig)
Richard Stewart (Professor, NYU School of Law)
Michael Liebreich (Chief Executive, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, United Kingdom)
Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, (Chief Executive Officer, ICTSD)
Sourabh Sen (Chairman and Co-Founder, Astonfield Renewables)

Reforming New York’s Energy Vision: Implications for Wholesale Electricity Markets
2014-11-03 18:30 - 20:00 | NYU School of Law, Vanderbilt Hall, Faculty Library, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Sponsored by Latham & Watkins LLP
On November 3rd, the Guarini Center held an event titled, Reforming New York’s Energy Vision: Implications for Wholesale Electricity Markets at NYU Law. The event addressed the New York Public Service Commission’s “Reforming the Energy Vision (REV)” initiative to reform New York’s electric energy industry and regulatory practices to promote greater system-wide efficiency, greater deployment of renewable energy and “distributed” energy resources, and greater use of technologies, products and services to increase demand elasticity and efficiency. The REV could have profound operating and legal implications for wholesale power markets in New York (and potentially in other parts of the U.S.). This event provided a forum for experts to discuss these implications and the factors that should be considered while the REV initiative is still under consideration by the New York Public Service Commission.

Opening remarks by:
Michael Gergen (’92), Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
Panelists:
Clarke Bruno (’92), Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Anbaric Transmission
Richard B. Miller (’87), Director, Energy Markets Policy Group, Con Edison
John P. Reese, Senior Vice President, U.S. Power Generating Company
Moderated by:
David L. Schwartz, Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
Monday, November 3, 2014 6:30 – 8pm
Wine and cheese reception to follow
NYU School of Law
Faculty Library (3rd Floor), Vanderbilt Hall
40 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012

Latham & Watkins LLP is dedicated to working with clients to help them achieve their business goals and overcome legal challenges anywhere in the world. From a global platform of offices in the world’s major financial, business and regulatory centers, the firm’s lawyers help clients succeed.

Speaker Bios:
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.

Clarke Bruno, Clarke Bruno oversees Anbaric’s transmission projects in the Mid-Atlantic region and helps lead its microgrid business. He has over two decades of experience in law, energy and environmental policy, and project development. As counsel to former New Jersey Governor Corzine, he helped craft the State’s initiatives to upgrade the grid, spur renewable energy projects, and increase infrastructure investments. During Mayor Bloomberg’s first term in New York City, Mr. Bruno won dismissal of four major class action lawsuits. Before entering government, he was a regulatory lawyer and litigator for nine years and clerked for a federal judge for one year. Mr. Bruno chairs the NYC Bar Association’s energy committee for the 2012-2015 term.
Mr. Bruno graduated with honors from Swarthmore College where he won a Thomas J. Watson fellowship and cum laude from New York University School of Law where he was awarded an Arthur Garfield Hays fellowship.

Richard B. Miller, is Director of the Energy Markets Policy Group at Con Edison where he is responsible for federal energy policy issues, particularly as they relate to the operation of wholesale markets and the bulk electric transmission system. Previously, he was an assistant general counsel in the regulatory services department at Con Edison where he worked on legal matters relating to the Con Edison steam system, renewable power and energy efficiency. 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, Dax & Koenig in Albany, New York, and a litigation associate at Cohen, Weiss and Simon and Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City.
He is a graduate of Amherst College and New York University School of Law.

John Reese, a Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs for US Power Generating Company. Mr. Reese has been responsible for ongoing communications with city, state and federal officials and energy policy-making bodies on wholesale electric markets, and environmental and electric regulatory legislative issues. He is also responsible for project development including ongoing proposals to add generation in Brooklyn and Queens.
Prior to joining US Power Generating Company, Mr. Reese served as both Executive Deputy of the New York State Public Service Commission (2006-2007) and as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Commission from 2003-2006. As Vice President of Governmental Affairs for Reliant/Orion Power Holdings, Mr. Reese represented the New York City assets now held by US Power Generating Company as well as over fifty low impact hydroelectric facilities throughout the northeast. Previously, Mr. Reese served as the Deputy Director of the Independent Power Producers of New York, Sr. Technical Advisor to the US Department of Energy, and Director of Development and Evaluation in the New York State Energy Office. He served on the New York Governor’s and Mayor’s Task Forces for Greenhouse Gas Emissions, the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Independent Power Producers of New York, and serves as an advisor to the New York City Fund Clean Tech Committee, the Chariot Companies, the NYSERDA environmental research programs and Windinspire .
Mr. Reese received his MBA from Russell Sage College and his BA from Pennsylvania State University.

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.

Reforming Electricity Regulation in New York State: Lessons from the United Kingdom
2014-11-18 | NY
On November 18, 2014, the Guarini Center hosted an invitation only roundtable discussion exploring applications of British electricity regulatory policy for New York State.
The roundtable explored the U.K.’s experience in developing, negotiating and implementing RIIO. Participants at the meeting included leading British representatives from government, industry, and academia as well as American economists, environmental advocates, electric industry representatives and New York State Department of Public Service staff.
This workshop was made possible by the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Read the roundtable report and the accompanying issue brief on utility regulation in the UK.

NY Green Bank: Looking Back on Its First Year and Plans for the Future
2015-02-11 | NY
Caroline Angoorly, Chief Operating Officer & Managing Director, NY Green Bank
After agreeing in principle to its first seven transactions, what’s next for the NY Green Bank?
On February 11, 2015, the Guarini Center hosted Caroline Angoorly, Chief Operating Officer & Managing Director of NY Green Bank, and Paul Francis, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Guarini Center, to discuss this question.
The mission of the NY Green Bank is to accelerate clean energy deployment in New York State by helping to open up financing markets for clean energy projects. To accomplish this mission, Angoorly explained, NY Green Bank focuses on transactions at the “near frontier” of commercial investment – transactions that are scalable, replicable, and based on proven technologies, yet not being undertaken by commercial lenders because they involve a structure, scale, or tenor of investment that is outside the norm for commercial lenders. The Bank is a division of NYSERDA.
Angoorly described a successful first year for the NY Green Bank. The Bank has allocated its initial capital of $200 million to seven transactions that have been agreed to in principle; the Bank’s investment in these transactions has been matched by private sector investment of $600 million.
Four categories of financial products have been offered this year by the NY Green Bank – (1) credit enhancement to alleviate default risk; (2) warehousing/aggregation to provide short-term support; (3) asset loans and investments to provide long-term support; (4) and composites of those three categories. These categories of products are a result of the NY Green Bank’s collaborative Request for Proposals process, which Angoorly emphasized is not based on a pre-existing slate of specific products. This flexibility to the needs of the market, Angoorly said, is a key component of the Bank’s strategy to accelerate clean energy deployment in New York State.
Angoorly also discussed the capitalization of NY Green Bank. Initially contemplated at $1 billion, capitalization of the remaining $800 million is subject to approval in an ongoing proceeding at the New York State Department of Public Service. In making the case for the need to capitalize the remaining $800 million, Angoorly pointed to a Booz & Company study estimating clean energy investment opportunities in New York State at over $85 billion.
Going forward, said Angoorly, the NY Green Bank must build on its success and execute. The Bank will continue strengthening its portfolio, its internal processes, and its participation with other domestic and international green financing entities.

American Gas Exports: Regulation, Finance, & International Trade
2015-02-17 08:00 - 14:30 | NYU School of Law, D’Agostino Hall, Lipton Hall, 108 West 3rd Street, New York, NY, 10012, United States
On February 17, 2015 the NYU Environmental Law Journal and NYU Environmental Law Society in conjunction with Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law
Invite You to a Discussion on American Gas Exports: Regulation, Finance, & International Trade
To register please click here
Tuesday, February 17, 2015 8:00am – 2:30pm
NYU School of Law
Lipton Hall, D’Agostino Hall
108 West Third Street
New York, NY 10012
RSVP here 5 CLE credits available for both newly admitted and experienced attorneys.
This Symposium will provide a forum for experts in their field—representing government, finance, the legal practice and academia—to discuss the future of liquid natural gas exports from the United States. How much natural gas should, and will, the Department of Energy (DOE) approve to be exported? What are the financing implications of the recent changes to the DOE approval process? In what ways may the law of the World Trade Organization constrain U.S. policy regarding natural gas exports? These questions and more will be explored.
Introductory Remarks
Richard Stewart, Professor of Law, NYU School of Law
Panel One: Breaking Down the Public Interest Determination -The Limits of What the Government Will Approve
Robert Fee, Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of Energy
Vignesh Gowrishankar, Policy Manager, NRDC
Sugandha Tuladhar, NERA Economic Consulting
Katrina Wyman, Professor of Law, NYU School of Law (moderator)
Anthony Yuen, Citi Group
Panel Two: Bringing American Gas to Market – Financing and Infrastructure Issues
Jean-Pierre Boudrias, Goldman Sachs
Timothy Puko, Energy Reporter, The Wall Street Journal (moderator)
Robert Seber, Vinson & Elkins LLP
Eric Silverman, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP
Branko Terzic, Former CEO & Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Keynote Address and Lunch
C. Boyden Gray, Boyden Gray & Associates LLP
Panel Three: International Trade Issues – Opportunities and Constraints posed by America’s International Trade Agreements
Alan M. Dunn, Stewart and Stewart
Spencer Griffith JD ’82, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Robert Howse, Professor of Law, NYU School of Law
Joanna Langille JD ’11, NYU School of Law (moderator)

Considering A Career in Energy?
2015-02-26 12:00 - 13:30 | NYU School of Law, Vanderbilt Hall, Room 201, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Have you ever considered a career in energy law or policy? Curious about what opportunities might exist in the field? Join us for lunch with two NYU Law alumni who are at the forefront of the profession.
Please RSVP here. Students and alumni only
Thursday, February 26th, 12 to 1:30PM
New York University School of Law
Vanderbilt Hall Room 201
Speakers:

Francesca Odell ’96, Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Jacob Jay Worenklein ’73, Chairman and CEO, US Grid Company

Speaker’s Bios:
Francesca Odell
Ms. Odell’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity transactions and other financing transactions (including capital markets, restructurings and project finance). Her practice is primarily cross-border, focusing on Latin America, and particularly Brazil.
Ms. Odell was recognized by The American Lawyer as a “Dealmaker of the Year,” and is internationally distinguished as one of the best corporate lawyers practicing by Chambers Global, Chambers USA, Chambers Latin America, The Legal 500 U.S., The Legal 500 Latin America and Latin Lawyer 250: Latin America’s Leading Business Law Firms. In 2013, Ms. Odell was nominated for the “Finance Lawyer of the Year” award at the Chambers USA Women in Law Awards, and was also highlighted in Latin Lawyer’s “Women In Law” issue celebrating the most inspiring women in the Latin American legal profession. She has also been named one of “Latin America’s Top 50 Legal Stars” by Latin Business Chronicle. Ms. Odell currently serves on the board of the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce, and on the advisory board of Legal Outreach. She also serves as a board member and as the Secretary-Treasurer of Volunteers of Legal Service.
Ms. Odell joined the firm in 1996 and became a partner in 2005. She received a J.D. degree from New York University School of Law, where she was a staff editor of the Journal of International Law & Politics. She received an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Ms. Odell is a member of the Bar of New York. Her native language is English, and she is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

Jacob Jay Worenklein
Jay is Chairman and CEO of US Grid Company. Prior to founding US Grid Company, Jay served as a partner and co-head of Global Projects at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. He founded and served from 2003 to 2008 as Chairman and CEO of US Power Generating Company. From 1993 to 2003, he served as global head of project finance at Lehman Brothers and then as global head of the energy, power, infrastructure and project finance sectors at Société Générale (which was named by Euromoney, during the period of his leadership, as the “World’s Best Project Finance Bank”). Jay practiced law at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy from 1973 to 1993, where he founded and headed the firm’s project finance and utility practices and served as a member of its three-person executive committee. Jay served on the Boards of Directors of numerous public and private companies in the U.S. and chaired the audit committees of several boards.In 2002, Infrastructure Journal in London awarded him its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to the energy, infrastructure and project finance sectors. Jay has served as an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the NYU Stern School of Business. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Committee for Economic Development (CED), a leading business organization.

The Future of Natural Gas and Coal-Fired Generation
2015-03-04 12:00 - 13:30 | NYU School of Law, Greenberg Lounge, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Sponsored by White and Case LLP
What is the future of coal and natural gas as fuels for electricity generation in the United States?
On March 4, 2015, the Guarini Center hosted a panel to discuss this question. Panelists discussed the potential returns for investments in coal and gas generation; the extent of domestic gas supply; how the increase in renewables on the grid has differently affected the economics of coal and gas-fired generation; the impacts of federal environmental regulations on each fuel source; the status of carbon capture and sequestration projects and much more.
Speakers:
Catherine Callaway, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Dynegy Inc.
Robert Mancini (’84), Managing Director & Co-Head of CPP-II, The Carlyle Group
Thad Miller, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, Calpine Corp.
Jeffrey Pollard, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs
Michael Shenberg (’85), Partner, White and Case LLP
Speaker bios:
Catherine Callaway has held the position of Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Dynegy Inc. since September 2011. Ms. Callaway leads Dynegy’s Legal, Ethics and Compliance, NERC and Contract Administration functions. Dynegy generates reliable, environmentally responsible and affordable energy from its power stations located in the Midwest, Northeast and West Coast. Dynegy’s fuel-diverse fleet of power stations can generate 13,000 megawatts – about half from coal and half from natural gas plants – enough to power about 10 million homes. Through its retail electricity providers, Homefield Energy and Dynegy Energy Services, Dynegy serves residential, municipal, business and industrial customers in Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Dynegy will double in size following the consummation of pending transactions with Duke and Energy Capital Partners. Ms. Callaway has been advising energy companies on legal matters for almost 25 years. Prior to joining Dynegy, she was General Counsel of Reliant Energy and the Gulf Coast Region of NRG Energy and prior to that she held various legal positions with Calpine Corporation, Reliant Resources, Coastal Power and Chevron. Ms. Callaway earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Texas.
Robert (“Bob”) Mancini is a Managing Director and Co‐Head of CPP II. Mr. Mancini serves as Chairman of the Board of Cogentrix. Mr. Mancini is based in New York.
Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Mancini was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs & Co., where he spent nearly twenty years. Most recently Mr. Mancini led the firm’s on‐balance sheet power asset business through Goldman’s wholly owned subsidiary, Cogentrix Energy LLC, where he was CEO. Mr. Mancini was instrumental in Goldman’s entry into the power asset business in 2003. Prior to 2003 Mr. Mancini was a member of the legal department where he eventually became the Deputy General Counsel of the Securities Division. Prior to joining Goldman, Mr. Mancini spent ten years in private practice as a lawyer with Debevoise and Plimpton, where he established that firm’s derivatives practice.
Mr. Mancini received his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1984, where he was a member of the Law Review, and received his B.A. degree from Binghamton University in 1980, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Thad Miller has been Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of Calpine Corporation, the largest US independent power generator based on production, where he has lead the Legal, Governmental & Regulatory Affairs, Internal Audit, Compliance, Corporate Communications and Insurance groups since 2008. Prior to that he held various positions, including Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of Texas Genco LLC, an IPP; an energy advisor to TPG, a private equity firm; Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of Orion Power Holdings, Inc., an IPP; Vice President of Goldman Sachs & Co.; and a partner with two New York law firms. Mr. Miller earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and his Juris Doctor degree from St. John’s School of Law. In addition, Mr. Miller was an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1973-76.
Jeffrey Pollard is a banker within the Natural Resources Group, where he is focused on coverage and execution activities within the power and utility sector. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2006 as an associate and was named managing director in 2011. Prior to joining the firm, Jeff was a power and utility banker from 2003 to 2006. Previously, he served in several roles internationally and in the United States with the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Company from 1996 to 2001. Jeff earned a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994. He also earned an MS in Structural Engineering from Purdue University in 1996 and an MBA from the Kellogg School of management in 2003.
Michael Shenberg is a partner in the Firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group in the New York office. A recognized leader in his field, he focuses on energy M&A, capital markets and financing transactions for the Firm. Mr. Shenberg has represented financial and strategic investors in numerous transactions involving the purchase or sale of energy assets, including large portfolios, single-asset deals and joint ventures. Additionally, he advises on financings including restructurings, and corporate and commercial matters for energy company clients.

The German Energy Transition: Debating Implications for New York State
2015-04-29 11:00 - 12:30 | NYU School of Law, D’Agostino Hall, Lipton Hall, 108 West 3rd Street, New York, NY, 10012, United States
On April 29th, the Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law and the Ecologic Institute hosted a discussion about the German Energiewende (Energy Transition). This event provided an opportunity to speak with experts with first-hand insight into the Energiewende and lessons it may hold for policymakers in New York State as they pursue their own comprehensive energy reforms.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015, 11:00AM – 12:30PM
NYU School of Law
Lipton Hall, D’Agostino Hall
108 West Third Street
New York, NY 10012

Speakers:
Chris King, Global Chief Regulatory Officer, Smart Grid Services Siemens AG
R. Andreas Kraemer, Founder & Director Emeritus, Ecologic Institute in Berlin, Germany; and Founding Chairman, Ecologic Institute US
Georg Maue, First Secretary for Climate and Energy Issues, German Embassy
Michael Mehling, Executive Director, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Eleanor Stein, Advisor for Special Projects, New York State Public Service Commission
Justin Gillis (moderator), Reporter, New York Times

This event was made possible by the generous support of the German Embassy in Washington DC and the Transatlantic Climate Bridge Program.

Ecologic Institute is a transdisciplinary research organization focusing on environmental issues.

Speaker Bios:

Justin Gillis is a reporter for The New York Times who covers environmental science, with a special focus on climate change. He was the author of a Times series called Temperature Rising that ran from 2010 to 2013 and updated readers on major developments in climate science, winning the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism from Columbia University. He was also the principal author in 2014 of a series called The Big Fix that critically examined proposed solutions to climate change. One article in that series analyzed the Energiewende and the lessons it might offer for countries like the United States.

Chris King is Global Chief Regulatory Officer, Smart Grid Services for Siemens AG. He is responsible for policy-oriented and strategic activities, including market analysis and product strategy, sharing his 30 years industry experience with regulators and legislators worldwide. He is co-founder and Chair of the Brussels-based Smart Energy Demand Coalition and on the Board of the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative, Association for Demand Response and Smart Grid, and Silicon Valley Leadership Group. He is author of numerous industry articles, book chapters, and other publications on consumer response to dynamic pricing, effects of energy information feedback, smart grid business case, and advanced metering and related technologies. Mr. King, who has testified before the U.S. Congress on grid modernization issues, holds masters degrees in science and business from Stanford University and a doctorate in law from Concord Law School.

R. Andreas Kraemer is Founder & Director Emeritus of Ecologic Institute in Berlin, Germany and Founding Chairman (pro bono) of Ecologic Institute US in Washington DC. He is currently Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Germany, Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR), and Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Professor of German Studies at Duke University. His research focuses on the role and functions of science-based policy institutes or “think tanks” in theory and the practice in different political systems, the interactions among policy domains and international relations, and global governance on environment, resources, climate and energy.
With a strong background in institutional analysis and capacity building for sustainable development, environmental policy, and resource management, R. Andreas Kraemer focuses on integrating environmental concerns into other policies, notably EU General Affairs and external relations, including trade, development, foreign affairs, and security policy as well as the international fight against environmental crime. He is particularly engaged in strengthening Trans-Atlantic relations and cooperation in the wider Atlantic on environment, climate, and energy security.
Andreas was born in Dortmund, Germany, and was trained in industrial business management in the petrochemical industry before studying environmental engineering and sciences at the Department of Environmental Technology of the Technische Universität Berlin and the Université des Paris Diderot.

Georg Maue serves as First Secretary for Climate and Energy at the German Embassy in Washington, DC.
Prior to joining the Embassy, Georg worked at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety, with responsibility for climate and energy policy and various international environmental topics at the German Environmental Protection Agency. He collaborated on the ministry’s development of recent energy policies targeted at moving the German energy system in a cost-effective manner towards greater use of renewable energies and higher efficiency.
Georg holds an engineering degree in environmental technologies and received his PhD in microbiological treatment of contaminated soils, from the Technical University of Berlin.

Michael Mehling is Executive Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Michael Mehling helps coordinate research across MIT on the policy dimensions of energy, climate change, and the environment. He simultaneously holds appointments as Research Scientist with the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), and as Visiting Professor with the University of Strathclyde. Previously, he was President of the Ecologic Institute in Washington DC, an environmental think tank with partner offices in Berlin and Brussels, and held research and teaching posts at Georgetown University and the Universities of Greifswald, Helsinki and Constance. He also is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Carbon & Climate Law Review (CCLR), the first academic journal focused on legal aspects of climate change. He is a German attorney registered with the Bar of Berlin, and has advised various German companies and the German government on issues of environmental and energy law.

Eleanor Stein is Advisor for Special Projects at the New York Public Service Commission.
Eleanor Stein is currently tasked with project managing the REV proceedings at the New York Public Service Commission and is also pursuing an LLM in Climate Change Law at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow.
For a period of ten years Eleanor Stein was the New York State Public Service Commission Administrative Law Judge in Albany, New York presiding over the Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard proceeding; she also presided over New York’s Renewable Portfolio Standard proceeding until 2004. This was a collaboration and litigation of over 150 parties, authoring in June 2004 a comprehensive decision recommending a landmark state environmental initiative to combat global warming with incentives for renewable resource-fueled power generation. From 2004-2006 Judge Stein was visiting associate professor at Albany Law School teaching transnational environmental law, telecommunications law, and other subjects; she is currently an adjunct professor teaching the law of climate change. She has published and lectured on climate change and renewable energy.

Cleaner, Resilient Power for Island States
2015-10-01 | NY
For small island states that face the daunting challenges of high energy costs and climate change, abandoning fossil fuels in favor of solar energy would appear to be an attractive solution. Many, however, have not adopted cheaper, cleaner energy. To understand why, the Law School’s Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law is bringing representatives of island nations together with a solar energy company to explore the barriers to implementation of solar systems.
On October 1 the Guarini Center will lead “Cleaner, Resilient Power for Island States,” a workshop featuring keynote speaker Lyndon Rive, CEO and cofounder of SolarCity, a leading provider of solar power that is sponsoring the workshop, and invited representatives from the energy ministries and utility providers of Palau, the Seychelles, the Cook Islands, Republic of Marshall Islands, and other island nations.
Bryce Rudyk LLM ’08, climate program director at the Guarini Center and the senior legal adviser to the Alliance of Small Island States, will co-lead the workshop as an expert in international climate negotiations. Rudyk will give opening remarks, putting the workshop in the context of international efforts to secure commitments toward renewable energy in advance of the 21 Conference of the Parties in Paris in December. Guarini Center executive director Danielle Spiegel-Feld ’10 will also serve as co-lead and will moderate a panel on adoption challenges that have stifled renewable energy development in small island states in the past.
Since the islands have minimal access to fossil fuels and are in remote locations, all gas is imported by boat and transportation costs are high. In addition, boat deliveries are sometimes delayed by hurricanes or cyclones, creating energy insecurity. Switching to renewable energy could have many benefits, including reduced costs.
The leading culprit blocking the adoption of the technology appears to be cost outlays. For small island states that have yet to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, said Spiegel-Feld, “the intuition is a lot of this has to do with a lack of creativity in how to overcome the financing or legal impediments.”
Companies in the solar energy industry have been examining the challenges around adoption of solar technology. Having identified financing and the daunting upfront costs as major obstacles, they have developed financing arrangements to enable leasing of equipment in place of large, initial expenses.
NYU Law faculty and scholars at the Guarini Center have been exploring issues surrounding the climate and energy strategies of small island states for the past few years. Sarah Herring Sorin Professor of Law Katrina Wyman, who serves as energy program director at the Law School, has written extensively about the legal implications facing inhabitants of island states that are shrinking from rising seas and climate change.
For Rudyk, getting small island nations to implement solar energy is a key step to moving the world forward on reducing fossil fuels. In 2013, he proposed such a “building block” strategy in an essay he co-authored with University Professor Richard Stewart, John Edward Sexton Professor of Law and faculty director of the Guarini Center, and Michael Oppenheimer, a regular visiting professor of law. Rooted in decentralized approaches to climate action, the strategy leverages non-climate benefits that also coincide with climate benefits. For instance, microgrids would increase energy security and decrease energy costs for small islands over time—both non-climate benefits. But the side benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is decidedly a climate benefit.
If the workshop succeeds in eventually ushering small islands toward solar microgrids, it would benefit international climate negotiations by putting the pressure on larger nations, says Rudyk.
“If a small island can move to 100 percent renewable energy,” said Rudyk, “it puts the pressure on other countries to do the same.”

Book Discussion with Heinrich Böll Foundation President, Ralf Fuecks
2015-10-26 08:30 - 09:30 | NYU School of Law, Vanderbilt Hall, Snow Dining Room, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Creator: Anthem Press. All rights reserved.
The Guarini Center is hosting a breakfast with Ralf Fuecks, President of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, to discuss his new book Green Growth, Smart Growth: A New Approach to Economics, Innovation and the Environment. The event will take place in Snow Dining Room at NYU School of Law from 8:30 – 9:30 am.
Participation by invitation only.
Mr. Fuecks’ book tackles the question, how can we change the patterns of growth away from growing at the expense of ecosystems to a new paradigm based on growth with nature?
Ralf Fücks has been a member of the executive board of the Heinrich Böll Foundation since 1996. The primary focus of his work is on sustainable development and a green economy, the
future of European integration, and on foreign policy. Within the Foundation, he is responsible for the divisions of domestic political education, Europe and North America as well as German- Israeli-Relations.

Future of Demand Response in Electricity Markets
2015-10-26 12:00 - 13:30 | NYU School of Law, Vanderbilt Hall, Faculty Library, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Future of Demand Response in Electricity Markets: Implications of EnerNOC v. EPSA, REV, and more
On October 26th from 6:30 PM – 8:00PM, the Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law and Latham & Watkins LLP held a panel discussion about potential consequences of EnerNOC v. EPSA, REV and more for the future of demand response programs. The event was held at NYU School of Law, Faculty Library (3rd Floor), Vanderbilt Hall.

Speakers:
Michael Gergen (’92), 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.
Kimberly Harriman is General Counsel, New York State Department of Public Service. Mrs. Harriman has worked in the energy field for 15 years, both in government and in private practice, representing the public and clients on a range of energy-related issues. At the Department she is the General Counsel responsible for a team of 25 attorneys and has primary responsibility for providing legal counsel to the Public Service Commission and the Department regarding regulation of the electric, gas, steam, water, telecommunications, and cable industries.
Before assuming the General Counsel role, she was an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) presiding in major utility rate cases and other proceedings involving regulated utilities. In addition, she served as settlement judge in complex multi-party rate case negotiations.
She recently worked as Senior Counsel to the Moreland Commission on Utility Storm Preparedness and Response. Shortly thereafter she was assigned to work on the restructuring of the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) and worked with a team to develop and implement the Department’s new oversight responsibility with respect to LIPA.
Prior to becoming an ALJ, Kim worked as the Assistant Secretary for Energy in Governor Paterson’s office where she assisted in the development of policy on a variety of energy issues affecting New York. Before joining the Paterson Administration she served as an assistant counsel at the Department of Public Service where she was responsible for major rate case litigation, siting of electric generating facilities, prudence proceedings, development of retail access policy, and coordination and oversight of federal energy legislation.
Kim has also worked for the law firms of Cohen, Dax and Koenig and Couch White, where she represented developers and owners of electric generation and large industrial clients.
She received her Bachelor of Arts from Siena College and her law degree from Albany Law School. She is on the Board of Directors for Women in Communications and Energy, and she resides in the Albany area with her husband and three children.

Richard B. Miller (’87), is currently an Assistant General Counsel in the Regulatory Services Department at Con Edison. He has held a variety of positions at Con Edison overseeing legal and policy issues concerning federal energy policy, demand response, energy efficiency and electric operations. 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, Dax & Koenig in Albany, New York, and a litigation associate at Cohen, Weiss and Simon and Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City. He is a graduate of Amherst College and New York University School of Law. He has written articles on energy policy that have been published in the Energy Law Journal and Public Utilities Fortnightly. On a personal note, he lives in New York City and uses a bicycle as his primary form of transportation, bicycling approximately 4500 miles annually.

Emilie Nelson is the Vice President of Market Operations for the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), which operates New York’s high voltage transmission system,manages the state’s wholesale electricity markets, and conducts comprehensive power system planning.
Ms. Nelson started her career in power generation and joined the NYISO in 2004. During her time at the NYISO,she has held various roles in market monitoring, energy market design, and the operation of wholesale electricity markets. In her current position, Ms. Nelson is responsible for NYISO’s Installed Capacity Market Operations, Demand Response Operations,and Operations Performance and Analysis departments.
Ms. Nelson earned a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and a Masters of Business Administration from Pace University.

John P. Reese is Senior Vice President at US Power Generating company, where he is responsible for regulatory and government affairs, development, and environmental compliance for a portfolio currently including 2000 mw of generation in New York City.
Prior to USPG, he served as Senior Policy Advisor and Executive Deputy to the New York Public Service Commission working on the creation of NY’s Renewable Portfolio Standard program and previously served as a Vice President of regulatory/market issues for Orion Power/Reliant Energy, a portfolio of renewable and fossil generation. Mr. Reese also served as Senior Technical Advisor to the US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy from 1994 – 1998.
Mr. Reese is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Sage College.

David L. 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.

What to Expect on the Road to Paris
2015-11-10 18:00 - 19:00 | NYU School of Law, Vanderbilt Hall, Faculty Library, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012, United States
“What to Expect on the Road to Paris: A Conversation with Experts at the Center of the UN Conversation”

On November 10, 2015 the Guarini Center will host a discussion about the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21/CMP11).
Bryce Rudyk (LLM ’08) Guarini Center, Climate Program Director and other experts in the field will provide their outlook regarding the upcoming conference.
Please RSVP

Lessons from Afar: Innovative Energy Efficiency Policies from Across the Atlantic
2015-12-14 09:30 - 11:00 | NYU School of Law, Greenberg Lounge, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012, United States
On December 14th, the Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law at NYU School of Law, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School and Urban Green Council, will hold a discussion on, “Lessons from Afar – Innovative Energy Efficiency Policies from Across the Atlantic.”
The event is free, but space is limited. Please RSVP, here.
Speakers include:
Nico Kienzl, Director, Atelier Ten
Cecil Scheib, Chief Program Officer, Urban Green Council (moderator)
Miranda Schreurs, Director, Environmental Policy Research Centre and Professor at (FFU) Freie Universität Berlin
Marcos Vaquer Caballería, Chair Professor of Administrative Law at Carlos III de Madrid University and Secretary General of the University
Themes for discussion include European building label schemes, energy audit regimes and public-private partnerships to catalyze building retrofits and promote energy efficiency entrepreneurs.
Monday, December 14, 2015, 9:30am – 11:00am
NYU School of Law
Greenberg Lounge, Vanderbilt Hall
40 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
1.5 CLE credits are available in the areas of Professional Practice category for both newly admitted and experienced attorneys. Please see CLE reading, here.

Please RSVP
This event has been made possible through the generous support of the American Friends of Bucerius, the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Transatlantic Climate Bridge, and Pérez-Llorca and the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

Speakers include:
Nico Kienzl, Director, Atelier Ten

As a director of Atelier Ten and leader of its global energy analysis practice, Nico consults on a wide variety of large scale residential, commercial and institutional buildings, as well as on masterplan and renovation work in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.
Nico has particular experience with the application of advanced building analysis including facade optimization, daylight and shading analysis, and optimization of building systems. Recent work includes the first LEED Platinum condominium high rise in New York City, the sustainability framework for Columbia’s new Manhattanville Campus, and the adaptive reuse of the Horno3 blast furnace for the Museum of Steel in Monterrey, Mexico. Nico teaches building systems integration at Pratt Institute’s Graduate Architecture Program and the core building systems class at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation.
He is a LEED Fellow, and serves as a representative member of the U.S. General Services Administrations (GSA) Green Building Advisory Committee. Nico holds a Dipl. Ing. in Architecture from the Technical University in Munich, an M.S. in Building Technology from MIT and a Doctor of Design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.

Cecil Scheib, Chief Program Officer, Urban Green Council
Previously, as Director of Advocacy, he organized efforts of the Building Resiliency Task Force at the request of the NYC Mayor and Speaker, and has led Urban Green’s green codes efforts since 2012. With over 20 years sustainability experience, Cecil was formerly Director of Energy and Sustainability at New York University, cutting energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 30% in five years. He wrote NYU’s Climate Action Plan and Energy and Water Design Standards for new construction, and managed the Sustainable Landscaping and Recycling Shops. Prior to NYU, he founded Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, an off-grid community of 75 residents dedicated to innovating sustainable technology and social systems. Cecil teaches GPRO:O&M through SEIU Local 32 BJ Thomas Shortman Training Fund. He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University and a Professional Engineer’s license from New York State, and is a Certified Energy Manager and LEED Accredited Professional.

Miranda Schreurs, Director, Environmental Policy Research Centre and Professor at (FFU) Freie Universität Berlin
Prior to this she was Associate Professor in the Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland. Schreurs’ work focuses on comparative environmental politics and policy in Europe, the US, and East Asia. She was born and raised in the United States and has also lived for extended periods in Japan and Germany and briefly in the Netherlands. Her PhD is from the University of Michigan and her MA and BA from the University of Washington. She has also spent time researching or teaching at Harvard University, Utrecht University, the Freie Universität Berlin, Keio University, Chuo University, and Rikkyo University and has held fellowships from the SSRC-MacArthur

Foundation Program on International Peace and Security Affairs, the Fulbright Foundation, and the National Science Foundation/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
In July 2008 Miranda Schreurs was appointed to the German Advisory Council on the Environment.
Marcos Vaquer Caballería, Chair Professor of Administrative Law at Carlos III de Madrid University and Secretary General of the University
He has written numerous articles and books on urbanism and housing and has served as Undersecretary of Housing (Ministry of Housing, Spanish Government), CEO of the Public Enterprise of Land Development (2008-2010), General Director of Urban Planning and Land Policy (Ministry of Housing, Spanish Government, 2004-2008) and as a member of the bureau of the Land Management and Housing Committee of UNECE (2006-2008).
The Spanish economic crisis –and in particular, the associated construction and real estate sector crisis- provoked the exhaustion of the national economic development model and the emergence of a new urban planning regulation based on the “territorial and urban sustainable development” principle. For that purpose, new and innovative measures for building refurbishment and urban renovation were put in place, based on energy efficiency and universal accessibility criteria. This new paradigm relies heavily on innovative public-private partnerships, which will be explained during Professor Vaquer’s presentation.

Energy Private Equity: The New Reality of Low Oil Prices
2016-01-26 18:00 - 20:00 | NYU School of Law, D’Agostino Hall, Lipton Hall, 108 West 3rd Street, New York, NY, 10012, United States
On January 26, 2016, the Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law at NYU School of Law, held a discussion on, “Energy Private Equity: The New Reality of Low Oil Prices.”

Speakers included:
Stephen Coats, Partner, Riverstone
Thomas Edelman, Managing Partner, White Deer Energy
Robert Gold (’84), Senior Executive, Ridgewood Energy
Shaia Hosseinzadeh, Managing Director, WL Ross & Co. LLC
Robert Seber, Partner, Vinson & Elkins LLP (moderator)
This event was made possible through the generous support of Vinson & Elkins LLP.

Stephen Coats, Partner, Riverstone
Mr. Coats is a Partner of Riverstone, serving as General Counsel. He is based in New York.
Prior to joining Riverstone in April 2008, Mr. Coats was a Partner at Vinson & Elkins L.L.P., a law firm specializing in the energy sector. While at Vinson & Elkins, he focused on domestic and cross-border M&A work in the energy sector. Prior to joining Riverstone, Mr. Coats was outside counsel to Riverstone in several transactions including, among others, Niska Gas Storage, Frontier Drilling, Red Technology Alliance, and Phoenix Exploration Company.
He received his B.A. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993 and his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1997. Mr. Coats is licensed to practice law in the states of New York and Texas.

Thomas Edelman, Managing Partner, White Deer Energy
Prior to forming White Deer, Mr. Edelman founded and/or managed a series of eight energy companies, creating significant value for investors over more than a 25-year period. He founded or co-founded Snyder Oil Corporation (now part of Devon Energy Corporation), Range Resources (NYSE: RRC) and Patina Oil and Gas (now part of Noble Energy, Inc.). He also co-founded Bear Paw Energy and Bear Cub Energy, both midstream companies based in the Rocky Mountains.
Prior to 1981, when he left Wall Street to co-found Snyder Oil, Mr. Edelman was a Vice President in The First Boston Corporation’s (now Credit Suisse) energy group and an associate at Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb.
Mr. Edelman is currently a Director of Noble Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NBL). He currently chairs the Investment Committee and serves as a Trustee of The Hotchkiss School, serves as Chairman Emeritus of Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, is a Director of The Wildlife Conservation Society and serves on the Advisory Council of Princeton University’s Department of Politics. He is a former member of the Board of Georgetown University. Mr. Edelman holds an MBA in Finance from Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar) and a BA in Political Economy from Princeton University, magna cum laude.

Robert Gold (’84), Senior Executive, Ridgewood Energy
Robert (“Bob”) L. Gold has been a Senior Executive of Ridgewood Energy since 1987, the CEO of Ridgewood Capital Corp. since 1998 and has been active in the acquisitions and private equity arena since the mid-1980s. At Ridgewood, Mr. Gold is part of the senior leadership team in businesses that focus on investments in the energy industry. Bob is the Chairman of the Board for the Institute for Creative Problem Solving, an educational program for Gifted Math Students and serves on the Board of the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering. Bob is also a Board member of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art where he chairs the Finance and Investment Committees. Bob is a co-founder of the Thought Into Action Institute at Colgate University, a program for college entrepreneurs where Bob teaches entrepreneurship and mentors college entrepreneurs. Prior to joining Ridgewood, Bob was a corporate attorney at the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and a Law Clerk for Federal Judge Charles P. Sifton. Bob earned his B.A. from Colgate University and received his J.D. from New York University Law School. Bob is the father of 5 children.

Shaia Hosseinzadeh, Managing Director, WL Ross & Co. LLC
Mr. Hosseinzadeh is a Managing Director of WL Ross & Co. LLC. He leads the firm’s private equity and credit activities in energy and natural resources. Since joining WL Ross in 2010, Mr. Hosseinzadeh has been involved in the firm’s investments in the natural resources, power and aerospace sectors. Mr. Hosseinzadeh has over 15 years of experience with private equity, mergers, acquisitions and financial restructurings. He has worked on more than 46 transactions with a combined aggregate value of $36 billion.
Prior to joining WL Ross, Mr. Hosseinzadeh was employed by Apollo Global Management in New York. Prior to that, he worked in the Investment Banking and Leveraged Finance Group at Credit Suisse First Boston. His past and present board positions include Air Lease, EXCO Resources, Garden Fresh Restaurant, MW Industries, Gray Wireline Service and Varel International. Additionally, he is a member of the Brookings Institute Energy Security Task Force, and serves as a Sustaining Board Member of Youth Inc.
Mr. Hosseinzadeh earned his MSc in economics and philosophy and his BSc in economics from the London School of Economics.

Robert Seber, Partner, Vinson & Elkins LLP (moderator)
Mr. Seber’s principal areas of practice are private equity and privately negotiated mergers and acquisitions. He has represented numerous investment funds and corporate clients in different sectors of the energy industry and a wide spectrum of other industries, including technology and financial services. Robert’s extensive private equity experience covers the full transactional cycle of investment funds, ranging from fund formation to acquisitions, recapitalizations, minority investments, complex equity arrangements, and exits. He teaches classes on “Oil and Gas Law and Governance” and “Energy Deals” at New York University.
