Energy
Contact: Paul R. McCary
Contact: Robert J. Munnelly, Jr.
Murtha Cullina LLP has long been a leading law firm dedicated to serving our clients in the energy industry, including merchant generators, retail electricity suppliers, end users of electricity and municipal-owned utilities. The firm's energy practice combines its extensive regulatory experience with the strengths of related practice areas to provide full service legal counsel to our energy clients. With five offices in Connecticut and Massachusetts, Murtha Cullina is well positioned to serve energy clients throughout the Northeast.
Three things distinguish Murtha Cullina from other energy law firms. First, we do not represent investor-owned electric distribution companies. Instead, we focus our practice on participants in the competitive electricity markets and end users. Second, our complementary environmental and land use practice is one of the most experienced in New England with respect to permitting, siting and related issues. Finally, our energy attorneys have years of practical experience in developing innovative and strategic approaches to energy challenges and opportunities. We know the business and use our knowledge to deliver high quality legal services in a cost-effective manner.
Murtha Cullina represents merchant owners of power plants, including fossil-fuel, waste-to-energy and renewable power generating facilities. We advocate on behalf of generators in regulatory and legal proceedings and partner with them to develop innovative legal strategies to respond to changes in the competitive marketplace. We also help clients take full advantage of renewable energy credits, tax savings and grant funding opportunities available to developers of renewable energy projects. In conjunction with other practice groups, we provide legal assistance to generators with regard to acquisitions, labor and employment issues, environmental compliance and other legal matters.
Environmental permitting and siting are keys to any merchant generation project. Our firm has handled the permitting and siting for many generation projects, including the 800 megawatt Lake Road Generation Station in Killingly, Connecticut, the 180 megawatt AES Thames coal-fired cogeneration project in Montville, several waste-to-energy facilities in Connecticut and wind farms in Massachusetts.
Murtha Cullina is well versed in the competitive retail supply of electricity. We assist retail electricity suppliers in preparing license applications and represent their interests in proceedings before public utility commissions of the New England states. We work on behalf of suppliers to ensure that new statutes and regulations are adopted or implemented in a manner that is consistent with a vibrant retail market in the Northeast. We draft retail supply contracts and offer a full range of legal services to competitive suppliers of gas and electricity.
Murtha Cullina's energy practice has served the needs of end users of electricity since the early PURPA projects were constructed in the 1980's. More recently, we have assisted large commercial and industrial electricity consumers in the development of on-site cogeneration facilities that are eligible for a variety of state and utility-sponsored benefits. We help our clients obtain capital grants awarded by the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control to defray project costs, negotiate agreements with contractors and gas utilities and handle siting and permitting. We also represent commercial and industrial consumers in regulatory proceedings before state public utility commissions with respect to rate design and associated topics. And we regularly review energy contracts and supply arrangements for commercial and industrial clients.
At Murtha Cullina, we believe that renewable energy, demand-side-management, and energy efficiency go hand-in-hand. To this end, the firm’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency practice area provides comprehensive, creative and innovative solutions to the ever growing and cutting edge needs and problems facing clients as they deploy renewable energy distributed generation (DG), demand-side-management, and energy efficiency at their businesses, hospitals, schools, and other institutions. We assist clients in securing funding from state and federal funding sources for the deployment of renewable energy generation, demand-side-management, and energy efficiency measures. In addition, we assist in identifying and advocating for the removal of legal, regulatory, and legislative impediments to the full deployment of renewable energy, demand-side-management, and energy efficiency in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Murtha Cullina represents clients in regulatory-related matters affecting renewable energy, demand-side-management, and energy efficiency before state and federal regulatory agencies and tribunals in Connecticut and Massachusetts, including the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control, Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, New England Power Pool, ISO New England, and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
As part of a multi-disciplinary team at Murtha, the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Practice Group can seamlessly assist renewable generation development clients in securing siting, air permitting and other environmental approvals for the construction of large-scale, grid-side renewable generation technologies, and providing commercial transactional support to renewable energy projects, including drafting and negotiating purchase power agreements and renewable energy credit (“REC”) purchase and sales agreements through the New England Power Pool REC trading platform.
Murtha Cullina provides legal services to municipalities with respect to streetlight issues and the purchase and sale of electricity. Our energy lawyers also possess significant knowledge of the gas industry. Finally, Murtha Cullina's Hartford-based Government Affairs team provides lobbying and related services to energy clients with operations in Connecticut.
Murtha Cullina is an active member of both the Northeast Energy and Commerce Association and the Connecticut Power and Energy Society. Our attorneys are members of the utility subcommittees of the American, Connecticut and Massachusetts Bar Associations and regularly participate in the New England Conference of Public Utility Commissioners and other energy events held throughout the region.
