Energy

Smart legal counsel to drive the energy industry forward

With rapidly advancing energy technology and market demand, changing regulations, increasing government oversight and need for stakeholder engagement, operating in the energy industry is more complicated than ever before. Today’s utilities, energy developers, manufacturers, operators and investors need multidisciplinary counsel to address the ever-evolving issues they face.

Meet Brownstein. Our energy team combines legal expertise with senior-level service in government, Congress and the private sector to help you navigate the ever-shifting regulations, policies and laws facing the industry. The Brownstein Energy team develops solutions addressing the full scope of legal, political, administrative, stakeholder and business challenges. We work with our clients on permitting, environmental review, contract negotiations, acquisitions and dispositions and litigation for all types of energy, including nuclear and renewable energy, gravity and battery energy storage, alternative energy, solar, hydrogen, offshore wind, oil and gas as well as climate change and carbon emissions management. With collective insights gathered from decades of experience working as decision makers across various federal agencies, we know how to best position our clients before Congress, federal administrative agencies and the courts.

National Recognition

Building the Future of U.S. LNG Exports

We’ve been there. For nearly two decades we’ve partnered with Freeport LNG, one of the largest U.S. exporters of liquefied natural gas, on some of this innovative company’s key milestones—starting with the structuring, strategy and development of a LNG receiving and regasification facility in Texas. We navigated the LNG export licensing process and hurdles with a variety of federal agencies—Department of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Energy Regulatory Committee and EPA—and continue to advocate for ongoing issues impacting the project such as EPA and Federal Energy Regulatory Committee permit needs. We have also represented Freeport LNG and its affiliates in connection with billions of dollars of financings secured by the Texas facility.

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Via a Public Private Partnership

We signed on to help Mustang Renewable Power Ventures and MSB Investors add a renewable gas facility to the state of the art Tajiguas Landfill. Our real estate team advised on CEQA, the Coastal Act and other land use issues involving the modification of entitlement approvals. We also settled litigation challenging the approvals. The result is a successful public private partnership with the county of Santa Barbara that modernizes the landfill, adding a materials recovery facility to retrieve recyclables from the garbage and an anaerobic digester. Organic waste is directed to the anaerobic digester, where the trash is treated to produce biomethane—reducing landfill gas that otherwise would be a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. The biomethane is then used as a renewable fuel for compressed natural gas trucks and to improve grid resiliency on California’s Central Coast.