Welcome to the Energy Infrastructure Blog – EI Blog, for short – Pierce Atwood’s new blog that will provide information and analysis on the key policy and legal issues relevant to energy infrastructure policy, development, and finance in New England and beyond. Pierce Atwood has assembled a team of legal practitioners from diverse practice areas who focus on all aspects of developing, buying, and selling energy infrastructure projects, and who also recognize that understanding both the fundamentals and trends in this ever-changing area is essential for developers, investors, policymakers, and interested members of the public. We look forward to sharing our insights with you.
Why an energy infrastructure blog – and why now?
We may not always think about it, but the mixed generation fleets, as well as the electricity transmission and distribution network that “keep the lights on” throughout New England are integral parts of everyone’s everyday lives. Policymakers, lawyers, and interested stakeholders have developed the policy and law underlying this energy infrastructure over many years.
Now is an especially important moment for the region’s energy infrastructure and its development. Bold state policy choices favoring increased procurement of clean energy generation, including from intermittent wind and solar resources, breakthroughs in energy storage technology, the advanced age of the region’s oil, nuclear, and coal-fired generation fleet, and periodic constraints on the region’s natural gas transmission system all demonstrate the “need” for substantial investment in the region’s energy infrastructure.
At the same time, energy infrastructure projects face financing challenges and, sometimes, devoted public opposition, further complicating already time-consuming and exhaustive state and federal regulatory review procedures. And, while recent state enactments seek to incentivize construction of clean energy generation and transmission projects, it is unclear whether and how federal policies promulgated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or the Trump Administration will affect such initiatives. Within this context, we offer the EI Blog to help developers, investors, policymakers, and others maintain a sophisticated and current understanding of the energy infrastructure field, including its emergent policy and legal trends.
We will bring relevant information and our thinking to you regularly at the EI Blog. Stay tuned, and feel free to subscribe at the bottom of the page. And, as always, please feel free to contact us at any time, just click on any team member’s name below.
Best regards,
The EI Blog Team
Jared des Rosiers
Randy Rich
Andrew Kaplan
Sarah Tracy
Michael Anderson
Kris Eimicke
Lisa Gilbreath
Liam Paskvan
Krystal Williams
