Energy Regulation and Litigation

Heller Ehrman has one of the preeminent energy regulation and litigation practices in the United States. In a wide variety of high-stakes cases before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Federal Trade Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and other regulatory entities, and federal courts, our lawyers have been at the forefront of major regulatory developments affecting energy providers and purchasers in matters relating to electric power, natural gas and crude oil pipelines, market restructuring and consolidation, and antitrust litigation. With our deep knowledge of the regulatory law and extensive work with clients from all parts of the energy sector, we create uncommonly favorable results and creative solutions for our clients.

As a full-service firm, we have the resources and experience to handle all issues relating to energy regulation, litigation and arbitration throughout the United States and elsewhere in the world. Our practice spans federal and state public utility regulation; regulatory approvals for mergers, divestitures, and other complex transactions; regulation under the Federal Power Act (including hydroelectric regulation), the Natural Gas Act, the Public Utility Holding Company Act and the Commodity Exchange Act; antitrust counseling and litigation; derivatives trading counseling and litigation, and regulation of qualifying facilities, exempt wholesale generators and foreign utility companies. Our clients include the largest utilities and power plant developers in most regions of the United States.

More than a third of our energy attorneys are "alumni" of FERC, and several others have worked for state energy commissions or as in-house counsel for electric and gas utilities. We have extensive experience in generic rulemakings, complaints, certificate proceedings, rate cases and other aspects of energy regulatory proceedings before FERC and state public utilities commissions as well as in federal and state courts of appeal. Our attorneys were actively involved in the rulemakings and contested cases that led to the deregulation of both the natural gas and electric markets. Heller Ehrman's ranks also include the current Chair of the American Bar Association's section of Antitrust Law and a former Director of Enforcement at the CFTC.

We also represent energy clients in antitrust, environmental and contract actions and in insurance coverage matters, complex litigation and commercial disputes related to energy projects. We litigate contested proceedings in federal and state courts and before federal and state administrative bodies and also handle appellate work, including to the U.S. Supreme Court. We offer counsel and suggest innovative solutions to avoid litigation and obtain practical, expeditious and economical solutions. Whenever possible, our lawyers provide the means of proceeding through negotiation, mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. When settlement is not possible, however, we provide among the best litigation services in the energy industry.

Representative Engagements

• Pacific Gas and Electric Company: Represent PG&E in litigation at FERC and in federal district court (PG&E v. Lynch, et al.) and courts of appeals concerning the Western electric crisis of 2000-2001. As the largest power buyer in the California markets, PG&E suffered multi-billion dollar losses as a result of the crisis, which spawned dozens of separate lawsuits and docketed investigations, involving hundreds of parties and thousands of pleadings, creating the most massive and complex proceeding in FERC history. Heller Ehrman has played a central role in this mega-proceeding, a case that is expected to yield a payout of several billion dollars in refunds to PG&E and other buyers in California.
• PacifiCorp: Represent PacifiCorp in a filed rate doctrine action in federal court against the Wyoming Public Service Commission, challenging its refusal to allow PacifiCorp to recover, in its retail electric rates, more than $150 million in FERC-regulated wholesale electric power costs that PacifiCorp incurred to serve its Wyoming customers during the Western power market crisis. 
• Unicom Corporation: Represented Unicom (parent of Commonwealth Edison) in obtaining favorable FERC approval to merge with PECO Energy to form Exelon Corporation, by many measures the largest electric utility in the nation.
• Bonneville Power Administration: Defended BPA in an arbitration claim for more than $1 billion for alleged breach of a contract securing construction of a major power plant. This was the first case in which the U.S. government submitted to binding arbitration and the largest case in American Arbitration Association history.
• PT Global Industries: Represent PT Global Industries in $100 million arbitration proceedings in Singapore arising out of the construction of a series of offshore gas platforms in Indonesia.
• Pacific Gas and Electric Company: Represented PG&E and a wholly owned subsidiary in an action under Section 1 of the Sherman Act and various California statutes alleging price fixing in PG&E's acquisition of natural gas in Canada. Obtained a dismissal with prejudice of a $950 million claim and successfully defended the dismissal on appeal.
• Chugach Electric Association: Mounted a successful defense against nine claims by Chugach's largest customer that Chugach had violated the parties' 25-year power supply contract. All nine of the plaintiff's claims were dismissed by the Alaska Superior Court.
• ChevronTexaco Corporation: Appeal to the California Supreme Court involving allegation that acquisition by Texaco of state assets of another oil company persuant to a merger was unlawful under the Cartwright Act.