Energy & Cleantech

Energy and cleantech industries are undergoing sustained transformation driven by technological advancement, regulatory change, rapidly increasing demand and supply constraints and shifting investment priorities. These developments affect how energy assets are developed, operated, financed, and retired. ArentFox Schiff works with organizations across the industry to address the legal and policy considerations associated with these changes.

Our Focus

Organizations operating in this space face overlapping regulatory, environmental, and commercial considerations, rapidly changing technologies, price uncertainty and the impact of global politics as they manage existing infrastructure and emerging technologies. Legal issues arise in connection with compliance obligations, operational transitions, evolving policy frameworks, and changing business demands.

Working alongside clients, we focus on how legal requirements interact with business operations, including the challenges associated with maintaining legacy assets, developing new facilities, and adapting to changes in environmental and energy regulation. This includes site remediation and site permitting, decommissioning, repurposing of existing infrastructure, the development of zero-carbon and other energy projects and meeting the rising and unpredictable demands of AI and data center build out.

What Do We Do?

• Advise on compliance with environmental and energy regulations affecting ongoing operations and project development
• Advising owners and investors in transactions to develop, buy or sell energy facilities
• Advise energy related companies on litigation related to operations, development, or regulation
• Advise energy project sponsors related to issues related to zoning and permitting, including litigation involving federal, state, or local regulators
• Advising on financing of energy and cleantech projects, representing both lenders and borrowers
• Support decommissioning activities, remediation projects, and the repurposing of existing energy assets
• Assist with the development of energy infrastructure, including renewable and zero-carbon facilities
• Advise on intellectual property considerations related to new energy technologies
• Support supply chain considerations, including the importation of materials and finished products 
• Assist with capital formation, including venture capital and other financing activity
• Represent clients in proceedings before federal and state courts, arbitrators, mediators, and regulatory agencies
• Provide counsel in connection with state and federal energy policy and legislative developments
• Advising architects, engineers and owners regarding the construction of new energy facilities
• Advising cleantech technology inventors in patenting and protecting their inventions
• Advising and representing clients in cross-border disputes involving energy projects, oil and gas concessions, foreign investments, and international treaty protections 
• Advising energy companies, project developers, lenders, investors, and other stakeholders on distressed energy assets, restructurings, bankruptcies, asset acquisitions, and related disputes involving power generation, renewable energy, infrastructure, and other energy-sector investments 

Who Do We Help?

• Electric and natural gas utilities, including municipal and cooperative suppliers and local distribution companies
• Owners and operators of electric transmission systems and natural gas and petroleum pipelines
• Energy infrastructure developers, including wind, solar, biomass, fossil fuel generation, and battery storage projects
• Institutional lenders
• International investors seeking investment opportunities in the United States
• Private equity and other investors
• Electricity and natural gas marketers
• Technology companies and manufacturers of energy-related products
• Construction and design companies
• Non-US companies investing in the sector
• CO2 capture and storage companies 
• Renewable Natural Gasses
• Solar Manufacturers
• Inventors seeking to patent technology
• Architects, engineers and owners seeking to build energy and cleantech facilities

How Can We Help?

Legal support may be required as organizations respond to changing environmental and energy regulations, evaluate asset lifecycle decisions such as decommissioning or repurposing, develop new energy projects, or address disputes before courts or regulatory bodies. Support may also arise in connection with capital investment, commercialization of new technologies, and engagement with evolving legislative and policy frameworks. 

We work across multiple segments of the energy sector, including traditional utilities, infrastructure developers, and investors operating in both established and emerging markets.

• Advising clients in connection with compliance, remediation, and asset transition matters
• Advising investors in energy projects, including buying and selling projects and interests in energy projects at every stage – early development, construction and operating assets
• Supporting development and deployment of energy infrastructure and new technologies
• Supporting architects, engineers and owners with the design and construction of energy facilities
• Representing clients in disputes before courts and regulatory agencies
• Providing input on legislative and policy developments affecting energy markets

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of organizations do you advise in the energy sector?

We work with utilities, infrastructure developers, lenders, investors, marketers, and companies involved in energy-related technologies and products.

Do you work on both traditional and renewable energy matters?

Yes. Our work includes matters involving electric power and natural gas infrastructure, as well as renewable energy and emerging technologies such as battery storage systems.

Can you assist with regulatory and environmental compliance?

We advise on compliance with environmental and energy regulations, including issues that arise during operations, project development, remediation, and facility transition.

Do you represent clients in disputes or regulatory proceedings?

Yes. We represent clients in proceedings before courts, arbitrators, mediators, and regulatory agencies when disputes or enforcement issues arise.

Read Our Energy & Cleantech Counsel

Click to read our blog where business, law, and the future of energy converge

Energy & Cleantech Counsel is a comprehensive analysis of the evolution and acceleration of energy technology, taking a wide-ranging view on how the intersection of global events, government initiatives, and private capital affect the entire sector. Our team has decades of experience providing counsel to traditional utilities, infrastructure developers, institutional lenders, and industry investors. We advise on the challenges of an industry in transition and have been involved in developing major state and federal energy legislation that has set the foundations for many of the electric industry policies of today, and in informing the policies of the future.